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A NEW CHAPTER 

IN THE 2^(^ 

EARLY LIFE OF WASHINGTON, 

IN CO>'NECTION WITH THE 

NARRATIVE HISTORY 



POTOMAC COMPANY. 



BY 

JOHN PICKELL. 




NEW YORK: 
D. APPLETON & CO., 346 AXD 348 BROADWAY. 

1856. 



t 312 



Entered according to the Act of Congress, in tlie year 1856, by 

D. APPLETON & CO., 

in the Office of the Clerk of the District Court of the United States in and 
for the Southern District of New York. 






PHILADELPHIA: 
T. K. AND P. G. COLLINS, PRIIfTEKS. 



DEDICATION. 



TO THE HONORABLE JOHN P. KENNEDY. 

My Dear Sir : — 

In 1823, after the lapse of many years, the 
project of connecting the East and the West, through 
the valleys of the Potomac River, and that of the 
most convenient tributary to the Ohio west of the 
mountains, was revived in the form of a proposition 
for a continuous canal navigation. To consummate 
this connection, required the rights and privileges 
secured under the existing charter of the Potomac 
Company to be surrendered. This was done; the 
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company was organized, 
and all the original papers, books, records, and notes, 
belonging to that time-honored enterprise, were depo- 
sited in its office. 

My connection with this Company for several years, 
as one of the Board of Directors, enabled me to collect 



IV DEDICATION". 

the interesting details for the narrative from the 
materials thus deposited. Their an-angement in 
chronological order required much care and labor, 
but was necessary to give it the unity of history. To 
preserve it in this form I was not altogether prompted 
by motives of personal interest ; it appeared to me a 
duty to avail myself of the opportunity that was 
afforded, to give the authenticated facts to the public, 
however unimportant in themselves, in which the 
Father of his Country took the most prominent part, 
and which might contribute to shed additional light 
upon the beauty, the harmony, and the virtue of his 
illustrious life. 

The extracts from the private correspondence of 
General Washington, and for which I am indebted 
to the kindness of Mr. Jared Sparks, form perhaps 
the most interesting part of the volume. 

In appropriating my labors, I cannot refrain from 
their introduction to the American public, through 
the name of one whose public and private life is 
distinguished by every virtue that adorns the good 
citizen, the patriotic legislator, and the sound states- 
man. Recognizing in him also a highly valued per- 



DEDICATION. V 

sonal friend, I felt that I could not manifest my 
appreciation of that friendship more suitably than 
by the dedication of the volume which adds a new 
item to the history of the life of the greatest and best. 
I am, most respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

THE AUTHOR. 



INTRODUCTORY HEMARKS. 



The conspicuous part it was the glory of Wash- 
ington to act upon the theatre of pubhc affairs, 
during one of the most eventful periods in the 
history of the world ; the universal dignity and 
charm of his demeanor in all the relations of life 
in which he was placed; the affability and disin- 
terested kindness of his intercourse with others ; the 
virtuous simplicity of his retirement after the con- 
summation of his country's independence ; the liar- 
mony of his public and his private life ; the purity 
of his patriotism and the splendor of his military 
career, formed altogether such a union of goodness 
and greatness in the character of one individual as 
was calculated to excite the warmest interest, and 
command the admiration of mankind. 

An accomplished classical writer, in his portraiture 
of this illustrious personage, truly and eloquently 
says: "He united the intrepidity of Aristides, the 
patriotism of Cato, the military prudence of Ceesar, 
and the humanity of Scipio. He was to his own 
beloved country, what Themistocles and Solon were 



Vlll INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 

to the Grecian States ; and what Nnma and Camillus 
were to the Roman Commonwealth." 

He was great and good in all the positions he 
occupied. 

We trace him first as a simple member of a sur- 
veying X)art7y, among the wilds and glades of the 
Alleghany INIountains — then as the special messenger 
from the Colonial Governor of Virginia, to the 
French commandant on the Ohio — next at the me- 
morable military defence of the stockade at the 
Great Meadows — then at the head of his regiment 
upon the bloody plains of the Monongahela — as a 
member of the House of Burgesses — as a delegate 
to the first Congress, in 1774 — as the Commander-in- 
Chief of the Army of the Revolution — at Annapolis 
resigning his sword and his commission into the 
hands of the representatives of the nation — after- 
wards as President of the Potomac Company — and 
finally as Chief Magistrate of the Union ; and closes 
his career in beautiful and simple retirement. 

Is it then a matter of surprise that there should 
cluster around the memory of this illustrious man, 
the warmest aff'ections of the American people ; the 
deepest veneration of every friend of mankind] 

In the beautiful and appropriate language of 
Matthew Henry, "the remains of good and great 
men, like the mantle of Elijah, ought to be gathered 
up and preserved by successive generations; their 
sayings, their writings, their doings ; their examples ; 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. IX 

that, as their works follow them, when they are gone, 
these stay behind to benefit mankind, and are their 
reward." 

Recognizing the force and propriety of these sen- 
timents, the compiler of the following pages must 
congratulate himself that an opportunity was afforded 
to him to rescue from oblivion a chapter in the life 
of a man that so honored humanity, and to gather 
up in a form to be perpetuated, the sayings, writings, 
doings, and example, with which that chapter is 
connected. 

However unimportant the facts may be in them- 
selves, they are not the less calculated to keep alive, 
in the affections of generations to come, the memory 
of him who was " first in war, first in peace, and 
first in the hearts of his countrymen." Let us be 
persuaded that while his memor)^ is suitably revered, 
the integrity of the Union will be secured, and the 
blessings of civil and religious liberty enjoyed in our 
country. 

The extensive correspondence in which Washing- 
ton was engaged after the close of the Revolutionary 
War, with the leading men of the country, relative to 
the great subject of Internal Improvement, is highly 
interesting, and is in fact an important item of 
history. ' This coiTespondence shows that he felt 
more than an ordinary' solicitude about the esta- 
blishment of a scheme of strengthening the bonds 
of union by means of internal communication. 



X INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 

A strong feeling was early awakened in favor of 
the specific plan he set on foot, among the public- 
spirited men of Virginia and Maryland, even before 
the rupture with the mother country ; and after the 
close of that memorable struggle, it assumed a more 
general character, and was emphatically impressed 
upon the public consideration as a measure of 
national policy. 

The original history of the Potomac Company is 
the nucleus around which the contents of this mono- 
graph are put together; and the narrative corre- 
sponds almost literally with the record of proceedings 
of that company. The connection of the compiler 
with the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company for 
several years, enabled him to have access to the 
books and papers that were deposited in the office, 
in 1828, when its charter was surrendered. The 
books and papers were collated and examined with 
much care, and disposed in their proper chronological 
order. This was a work of labor, and as it is the 
groundwork of this volume, no pains were spared to 
make it as complete as possible. 

The particular interest which attaches to these 
parts of the compilation flows from the fact, that the 
proceedings recorded were originally drawn up either 
by Washington himself, as the first President of the 
company, or examined and reviewed by him before 
they were transferred to the books, and that in all 
the histories that have been written of his life, not 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. XI 

one, as far as the knowledge of the compiler has 
extended, gives any details in reference to his con- 
nection with this enterprise, and of which he was the 
chosen head from its organization, in 1784, to his 
retirement, in 1788. 

The material fleets and circumstances embraced in 
the part of the volume which precedes the narrative 
of the Potomac Company, and with which Wash- 
ington was connected, were generally obtained by 
the most diligent and laborious examinations, from 
such numbers of the Colonial Gazettes and publica- 
tions of the earliest date, as the compiler could get 
access to. 

For the extracts, in the third part of the volume, 
relative to the Potomac Company, and to the policy 
of internal communication, the compiler is indebted 
to the kindness of Mr. Jared Sparks, who generously 
granted him the privilege of using his valuable collec- 
tion of the writings of Washington. These interest- 
ing extracts present in a clear and distinct view the 
sentiments and opinions entertained by the illustrious 
originator of the measure of public policy to which 
they refer, and will without doubt greatly engage 
the attention of the reader. 



PART I. 



A NUMBER of years anterior to the commencement 
of the Revolutionary War, the project of uniting the 
two great divisions of the country, separated by the 
Alleghany range of mountains, by means of a public 
highway, was entertained by some of the most pro- 
minent and distinguished individuals of Virginia and 
Maryland. 

In the latter part of the year 1753 Major Wash- 
ington, then only 21 years of age, was delegated by 
the Governor and Council of Virginia on an import- 
ant mission across the AUeghanies. Having been 
actively engaged during the greater part of the three 
years immediately preceding his appointment in sur- 
veying the wild lands of Western Virginia and in the 
mountainous district at the head-waters of the Poto- 
mac Eiver ; and already possessing a deservedly high 
character for energy, firmness and decision; with a 
thorough knowledge of the peculiar feehngs and pre- 
judices of the Indians; a practical acquaintance with 



18 WASHINGTON: 

the mode of living and travelling, and \vithal accus- 
tomed to the privations, hardships and exposure of a 
camp life in a wilderness country, the attention of 
Governor Dinwiddie was readily attracted to him, as 
the individual who combined in the greatest degree 
the qualifications suited to the discharge of the deli- 
cate and responsible duties of the mission. He was 
accordingly selected. His commission (Appendix A), 
the letter of instructions (B), and passport (C) were 
prepared with much care, and formally presented to 
him by the Governor at the seat of government on 
the 30th day of October, 1753. 

Immediately after the presentation of the creden- 
tials, he took his departure from Williamsburg amid 
the warm congratulations and good wishes of the 
Colonial Government and numerous friends who had 
called upon him on the occasion. He first proceeded 
to Alexandria, where he remained several days occu- 
pied in making the necessary arrangements for the 
journey, and then proceeded on his mission to the 
valley of the Ohio by the way of Wills' Creek. After 
a tedious and laborious journey of nearly three weeks, 
he reached his destination ; and, in pursuance of the 
letter of his instructions, continued there no longer 
than was absolutely necessary to the faithful discharge 
of the important duties devolving upon him under 
the authority of his special commission. On his re- 
turn, he directed his course to a more southern route, 



HIS EARLY LIFE. 19 

and entered the valley of the Potomac, not far north 
of the sources of the Shenandoah River. 

Notwithstanding the inclement season of the year 
when the journeys were performed, he took daily 
notes of the incidents as he proceeded, and sketched, 
with remarkable precision and graphic power, the 
physical features and topography of the country 
through which he travelled. On his return to Wil- 
liamsburg, he made a verbal report of the result of 
the mission to the Governor and members of the 
Council, and presented to them the manuscript journal 
of his travels across the mountains. 

From the imperfect record that is left of his per- 
sonal interview with Governor Dinwiddle, it is fair to 
infer that he availed himself of the occasion to suo-o-est 
the importance of opening a communication, by means 
of a public road, between the settlements east and 
west of the mountains. The suggestion, however, 
does not owe its origin so much to the consideration 
of facilitating trade and social intercourse between 
these two parts of the country, as to the idea of 
affording military protection to the remote settle- 
ments, and a defence against the aggressions of the 
French and their Indian allies upon the territory 
claimed by the British crown. 

Previous to the mission of Major Washington, 
the West was known only as a dense and extensive 
wilderness; traversed by watercourses and rivers; 
broken by lofty mountains and deep valleys, and 



20 WASHINGTON: 

inhabited by wandering and wariike tribes of Indians. 
Few of the prominent citizens of the Atlantic colonies 
at this period had an adequate idea of the character 
of the mountainous belt of country which intervened 
between the westernmost settlements of the eastern 
declivity of the Alleghany range and the western 
waters ; and no disposition was manifested to explore 
it, at the expense of the enjoyments and comforts of 
their homes, and at the imminent peril of their lives. 
Huntsmen, trappers and Indian traders were occasion- 
ally seen wending their way through its dark valleys, 
and over their rough and rocky acclivities ; but these 
laborious and dangerous journeys were not undertaken 
to acquire personal knowledge of the country with a 
view to its occupation or improvement. The object 
was gain by the toilsome prosecution of the particular 
pursuit in which these adventurers were engaged; 
and they were rather more inclined to magnify the 
difficulties they encountered in traversing the country 
in quest of hunting and trading grounds, than to 
give a candid representation of the character of the 
soil; of the broad and beautiful valleys and noble 
streams they had so often beheld beyond the moun- 
tains. 

Under these circumstances, it was fortunate for the 
country that an occasion occurred which called into 
active requisition the services of the youthful Wash- 
ington, an occasion that opened the bud which in after 
years developed to maturity, in the perfect greatness 



HIS EARLY LIFE. 21 

of the " Father of his Country." By the energy, the 
industry, and the fearlessness he manifested in the 
progress of his journey through an almost untrodden 
wilderness of several hundred miles in extent, and the 
intelHgence and sagacity and judgment displayed in 
the management of the affairs of the mission, he drew 
around him the unqualified confidence and esteem of 
the authorities of Virginia. On his return, he was 
immediately complimented by a military promotion to 
the grade of Lieut. Colonel of the regular forces, and 
in that capacity joined the brave, but ill-fated Brad- 
dock, and his army in the following year at the junc- 
tion of the Youghiogheny and Monongahela rivers a 
few days before the disastrous battle. 

Notwithstanding the entire defeat of the army 
under General Braddock, there were displays of 
military skill and courage on the part of the officers 
and men w^hich embalm their names in our grateful 
recollection, and adorn that otherwise dark page of 
American history with peculiar brightness. Among 
the most conspicuous. Colonel Washington stood pre- 
eminent. The House of Burgesses, which convened 
at Williamsburg in August following, unanimously 
passed a vote of thanks to Col. Washington and his 
officers " for their bravery and gallant defence of their 
country." All the proceedings of the campaign were 
approved and applauded by the people, and Wash- 
ington, thus cheered and encouraged in his patriotic 
efforts to serve his country, his determination to retire 



22 WASHINGTON: 

from the army was for a time delayed, and the chain 
of events which connected him with the subsequent 
history of the country remained unbroken. 

In a letter which he wrote to his brother a few 
days after the battle, dated Fort Cumberland (D), 
July 18th, he says: "By the all-powerful dispensa- 
tions of Providence, I have been protected beyond all 
human probability or expectation; for I had four 
bullets through my coat, and two horses shot under 
me, yet escaped unhurt, although death was levelling 
my companions on every side of me." 

The Reverend Samuel Daviess, subsequently Presi- 
dent of the college at Princeton, on the 17th day of 
August delivered an address, which both by its title 
and tenor is so remarkably characteristic of the times, 
and so prophetic, that I cannot deem it entirely out 
of place to refer to it, and introduce a brief extract 
from it. " Religion and Patriotism, the Constituents of 
a Good Soldier," was its appropriate title. The know- 
ledge of the defeat of Braddock and his army created 
much alarm, and aroused a military spirit in the 
country of the most effective character. Volunteer 
companies were organized in almost all the colonies, 
and the sound of preparation to march to the frontiers 
for the protection of the settlements was heard in 
every direction. Forces from the north, south, and 
middle colonies were ready to unite and place them- 
selves under the command of the gallant chief whose 
military achievements at the Great Meadows (E) 



HIS EARLY LIFE. 23 

and upon the bloody plains of the Monongahela had 
already won for him the title of a " hero." 

The reverend speaker, after applauding this noble 
spirit which pervaded the country, in terms of the 
highest pride and satisfaction, paused for a moment, 
and then, as if moved by inspiration, continued: "I 
may point out to the public that heroic youth, Colonel 
Washington, whom I cannot but hope Providence has 
hitherto preserved in so signal a manner for some im- 
portant service to his country." 

Colonel Washington continued in the military ser- 
vice of the colony until the termination of the cam- 
paign in 1758, when he resigned his commission, and 
in the following year was elected a member of the 
House of Burgesses. 

An interesting circumstance is related in Wirt's 
" Life of Patrick Henry," illustrative of the modesty of 
the distinguished youth, who, for the first time, was 
introduced to a legislative body as one of its mem- 
bers, and is so characteristic of true merit, that I 
trust its insertion here needs no apology. 

"A short time after Col. Washington had taken 
his seat, the speaker, Mr. John Robinson, in obedi- 
ence to an order of the House, rose, and in an elo- 
quent and impressive manner, tendered to him the 
thanks of the House for his eminent public services, 
and expatiated in language of the highest admiration 
upon his military achievements, and the importance 
of the services he had rendered the country." When 



24 WASHINGTON: 

Washington rose to express his gratefnl sense of 
the honor they had conferred upon him, in noticing 
his pubhc services in this distinguished manner, the 
biographer remarks : " He hesitated, stammered, and 
trembled, and was so much confused that he stood 
hesitating for a few moments, when the speaker re- 
lieved him by a stroke of address that would have 
done honor to Louis XIV. in his proudest and 
happiest moment, and said, with a conciliating smile : 
' Sit down, Mr. Washington ; your modesty is equal 
to your valor, and that surpasses the power of any 
language that I possess.' " 

There is no evidence in the recorded proceedings 
of the House of Burgesses of this session, that the 
subject of opening a communication with the West 
was introduced. The scheme he had originally indi- 
cated to Governor Dinwiddle was not, however, aban- 
doned; it continued to be cherished by him with 
undiminished favor. In his personal intercourse 
with the members, he took occasion to commend the 
project as worthy of their favorable consideration ; and 
he determined, before it should be formally brought 
before the legislature of the colony for its definite 
action, to supply himself with such facts as would 
show the feasibility of the project, the expense of its 
construction, and the advantages that would flow 
from the proposed improvement. 

For this purpose, mainly, he made several tours of 
examination to the sources of the Potomac River and 



HIS EARLY LIFE. 25 

the country intervening, to the navigable points of 
the western waters, in the years 1770, 1772, and 
1774. The selection of the best route Avas of the 
first importance, and to this object his personal efforts 
V were particularly directed. 

Few of the large streams issuing directly from the 
eastern and western slopes of the Appalachian chain 
were known at this early period, beyond the line of 
settlements. Their sources were either conjectured, 
or located upon vague and indefinite information, 
derived generally from hunters and trappers ; or from 
those whose erratic wanderings from their temporary 
habitations in the plains and depths of ravines and 
valleys, not unfrequently led them to the heads of the 
streams or opposite sides of the mountains, and ena- 
bled them to form estimates, with tolerable accuracy, 
of the distances across the portage. Well defined 
Indian and traders' paths, connecting these points, 
intersected each other at various angles, and greatly 
facilitated the explorations of the summit range. 
Several surveying parties were for some time engaged 
at different points, running lines and marking bound- 
aries ; and in collecting materials for a map, and an 
analysis of the middle colonies. Captain Thomas 
Hutchins, a bold, intrepid and intelligent woodsman, 
led the advance in this arduous and dangerous ser- 
vice. The surveys and explorations of these parties 
were noted with remarkable correctness. The topo- 
graphical description of Western Virginia, and Mary- 



26 WASHINGTON: 

land especially, exhibits interesting details of the 
entire surface of the eastern and western slopes and 
summits of the mountain range between the State 
lines of Pennsylvania and North Carolina. 

The maps that were plotted of the several surveys 
made by these parties, were critically examined by 
Colonel Washington, and materially aided him in 
selecting the most feasible route for the contem- 
plated communication between the Atlantic colonies 
and the Western Territory. 

Naturally fearless in the pursuit of a patriotic 
object, he allowed no difficulties or dangers to check 
him in the progress of his searches among the gorges 
and fastnesses of the formidable barrier which inter- 
posed, in the accomplishment of his favorite scheme. 
He penetrated to the very fountain sources — made 
laborious reconnoissances of the intervening summits 
— strictly scrutinized all the advantages and disad- 
vantages of their ground, and took ample notes of the 
diversified features of the country, within the range 
of the examination — thus preparing himself with the 
most important facts, to sustain the proposition upon 
its presentation to the legislatures of the colonies 
more immediately interested. 

In his letter to Mr. Jefferson, dated in 1784, ten 
years after his last tour across the mountains, in 
reference to the route, and the policy of opening the 
communication, he says: "I have, I think, clearly 
pointed out the advantages of the route I have 



HIS EARLY LIFE. 27 

selected, and the wisdom of the policy on the part 
of the States (Virginia and Maryland), to render it 
facile." 

The territories of Virginia and Maryland, being 
divided by the Potomac, made it the interest of these 
two colonies to be proportionably concerned in the 
improvement of its navigation, and the extension of 
the communication by a public highway to the valley 
of the Ohio. It was evident that the western trade 
would soon be a matter of importance, and could 
only be secured to those points on the Atlantic side 
to which the earliest and most improved channel 
would be opened. The sagacious and observant mind 
of Washington' foresaw clearly that the great western 
region would rapidly be peopled by an energetic and 
industrious population ; that its valleys and its plains 
would be checkered with cultivated fields, and mea- 
dows, and villages; that its numerous navigable 
streams would be active channels of trade and inter- 
nal commerce, and that the multifarious interests of 
enlightened and prosperous communities would soon 
extend their beneficent influences over the wide val- 
leys of the Ohio River and its tributaries ; and that a 
wise and just policy prompted the earliest adoption 
of the measure he proposed to bring before the legis- 
latures of the respective colonies. 

It was the invariable custom of Washington, from 
the age of eighteen years, to take notes of the most 
important circumstances and events in which he was 



28 WASHINGTON: 

personally concerned; and whilst travelling, to keep 
a daily journal of the incidents as they occurred in 
the progress of his journey. In this journal he par- 
ticularly noticed the peculiarities and fertility of the 
soil, and the natural growth of the country through 
which he passed, to which were added such reflec- 
tions and considerations as the occasion would sug- 
gest to a mind equally imbued with the power of 
close observation and deep thought. This custom 
had acquired with him the force of habit, and ren- 
dered his observations both highly interesting and 
instructive. 

Shortly after his return from the western tour, in 
1770, a portion of his journal and extracts from his 
letters, to some of his friends in Virginia and Mary- 
land, were published in several of the Colonial Ga- 
zettes, and were widely circulated and read. As was 
naturally to be expected, from the character of these 
papers, their perusal awakened a spirit of inquiry, 
and with it a strong desire among the energetic and 
enterprising of the youthful population to emigrate 
to the west, and in a few years hundreds of that class 
of the population of the Atlantic colonies had emi- 
grated thither. 

When Washington made his next tour, in 1774, 
he was surprised at the change that had already 
taken place in the valley of the Ohio River. With 
a mind that could clearly anticipate the future, he 
beheld, at no distant day, that remote wilderness of 



HIS EARLY LIFE. 29 

the great and extensive West the abode of dense 
and enterprising communities ; in the possession and 
enjoyment of all the elements of social and political 
prosperity; and, to hasten this consummation, he 
regarded the opening of a communication by a public 
highway between the East and the West as of the 
first importance. 

Entertaining these views, he brought the subject 
before the House of Burgesses, at its regular session, 
in 1774, and urged it earnestly upon the attention of 
the members, as a measure of public policy. But 
striving, for a long time in vain, for aid from the 
colony, he was compelled to change his original design ; 
and he introduced and moved the adoption of a bill 
to empower individuals to subscribe to the enterprise, 
and accomplish the improvement on certain expressed 
conditions, at their own expense. Even with this 
essential modification, the project was opposed — the 
largest share of the opposition coming from Central 
Virginia. To allay the hostility from this populous 
part of the colony, an amendment was incorporated 
in the bill to include in its provisions the improve- 
ment of the navigation of James E-iver. This mea- 
sure of compromise seemed to reconcile the conflict- 
ing sectional interests of the colony ; and, had time 
allowed, would have secured a passage of the bill in 
the House of Burgesses. 

But the prospects of a similar bill before the Ge- 
neral Assembly of Maryland were not so encouraging. 



30 T7ASHINGT0N: 

To give availability to any enactment, the concurrent 
action of the legislatures of the two colonies was 
necessary, so far, at least, as regarded the improvement 
of the channel of the Potomac River. Jealousies, 
and the rivalries for the western trade, had already 
grown up between the citizens of Georgetown and 
the merchants of Baltimore; and whatever efforts 
for aid were made by one party in the legislature, 
were counteracted by the other. Applications, me- 
morials, protests, and remonstrances, followed each 
other in quick succession, and the friends and advo- 
cates of the scheme despaired of success during the 
pending session. 

This was the doubtful condition of the favorite 
project of Washington, and to which the earliest 
energies of his mind had been steadily directed, when 
he was called, by his appointment (F) of Commander- 
in-Chief of the Army in 1775, to Cambridge. The 
war which immediately followed the affair at Lexing- 
ton, in April of this year, drew the public mind to 
more engrossing objects ; and during the continuance 
of that memorable struggle for national existence and 
independence, and until the retirement of the illus- 
trious chief in 1783, the prosecution of this measure 
was entirely suspended. 

The indications, however, in the House of Bur- 
gesses at the commencement of the Revolutionary 
War, were sufficiently favorable to encourage the 
belief that, in the event of the successful termination 



HIS EARLY LIFE. 31 

of that contest, no further difficulty would be expe- 
rienced in obtaining from that body at a subsequent 
session all the powers and privileges that were em- 
braced in the bill of 1774, and which were considered 
entirely adequate to carry into operation the original 
views and intentions of the friends of the project. 

In Maryland, the prospect of eventual success was 
not so flattering. The union of the merchants of 
Baltimore, an enterprising, intelligent, and wealthy 
community, exercised a controlling influence, not only 
over the deliberations and actions of the General 
Assembly, but moulded public sentiment in opposition 
to any measure which was supposed would divert any 
of its trade to another market; and precluded the 
hope that any future session would in the least abate 
its hostility to a proposition of this character, or which 
did not directly or indirectly promote its business and 
commercial prosperity. 



PART II. 



In 1783, the war of the Revolution terminated by 
a treaty which recognized and acknowledged the 
independence of the United States. Soon after that 
memorable event, the illustrious Washington resigned 
his commission (G) of commander-in-chief of the 
army into the hands of Congress at Annapolis, and 
immediately thereafter proceeded to Mount Vernon, 
where, as he beautifully and feelingly expresses it, 
"he hoped to spend the remainder of his days, in 
cultivating the affections of good men, and in the 
practice of the domestic virtues." 

Here, in his favorite retreat, secluded from the 
cares and anxieties of public life, crowned with glory 
and with honor, the beloved Washington cherished 
the hope of continuing in the enjoyment of that tran- 
quillity and freedom fi'om official responsibilities and 
cares which years of long public service had made 
particularly desirable. 

Notwithstanding the agreeableness of this retire- 



34 WASHINGTO^^: 

ment, he did not abandon the favorite enterprise of 
his eariy years (H). Contemplating from its quiet 
shades the wide extent of country which had risen 
from a condition of colonial dependence to a con- 
federation of sovereign States, he was the more im- 
pressed with the importance of the measure as a 
matter of national concern, of the wisdom of the policy 
of connecting the East and the West by a public 
highway, and of the adoption of a system of internal 
improvement, of which this proposed communication 
was to be the introduction. Fully persuaded of the 
propriety of his views, he opened an extensive cor- 
respondence on the subject with some of the most 
distinguished sages and patriots of the " times that 
tried the souls of men." He advocated the policy 
upon the broad, patriotic, and lofty principle of a 
common interest, or, in other words, of the general 
welfare; and although General Washington cherished 
full confidence in the stability of the popular institu- 
tions of the government, and in the inviolability of 
the Union, yet, with a wisdom and a forethought at 
that early period of our experience peculiarly his own, 
he regarded the facilitation of social intercourse 
between the populations of the extreme parts of our 
broad and extended territory, and the mutual inter- 
change of trade and commerce by means of public 
roads and highways, as important auxiliaries in bind- 
ing still more closely the sovereignties of the States in 
one fraternal, indissoluble compact. 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 35 

The enterprise of the Potomac Company was well 
calculated, in his view, to take the lead in this 
patriotic scheme. It was considered feasible, and at 
a comparatively moderate cost. The route he had 
suggested embraced a wider range of interests than 
any other that could at that time be proposed to con- 
nect the East with the West, the Atlantic markets 
with the fields of production, the purchasers and con- 
sumers with the producers. 

The condition of the country under the confede- 
rative government rendered the policy of establishing 
a judicious system of national internal improvement 
obviously apparent. The vast extent of the public 
domain in the far west., and in several of the States ; 
the importance of facilitating the transportation of 
the mails ; the establishment of post-offices, and en- 
couragements to the settlement of the public lands, 
were among the principal considerations which im- 
posed upon the government the imperative duty to 
aid and foster the system, in the infancy of the 
existence of the republic. And these considerations 
did not fail to be fully appreciated by the Father of 
HIS Country. 

Having enjoyed the quietude of his retirement for 
a few months, he left Mount Vernon on his first tour 
to the West after the close of the Revolutionary War, 
on the first day of September, 1784. The principal 
objects in view were to examine the condition of his 
lands in that country ; to renew his recollection of 



36 WASHINGTON: 

the features of the dividing ridge he had formerly 
examined, and to extend his observations beyond the 
limits to which they were originally confined. He 
proceeded directly to Fort Cumberland, where he 
remained a few days to prepare for the journey. A 
great extent of wilderness and mountain district lay 
before him, and through which it was not only 
necessary for him to travel, but, in order to carry out 
the intentions which mainly prompted the journey, 
to make an extensive and critical reconnoissance of 
the summit range which intervened between the 
head-waters of the Potomac and the Ohio Rivers. 
This was not an easy service ; it was one of toil and 
peril. When General Washington reached the first 
settlement beyond Fort Cumberland, he was advised 
of the great dissatisfaction which prevailed among 
the Indians inhabiting the country at the sources of 
the Cheat, Youghiogheny, Monongahela, and Savage 
Rivers ; and was cautioned not unnecessarily to expose 
himself to their wiles and treachery, while he would 
be engaged in the examinations. 

This information did not deter him from his 
original purpose, nor in the least abate his zeal in the 
pursuit of his patriotic object. He devoted several 
weeks to the arduous duties he had assumed, and 
supplied himself with facts and arguments of the 
most convincing character relative to the route he 
had selected for the proposed communication. His 
plan contemplated the improvement of the navigation 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 37 

of the Potomac from tide-water to the mouth of 
Wills' Creek, or to the highest practicable point of the 
Potomac, and connect it by a road or highway across 
the portage with the navigable waters of the Cheat, 
the Youghiogheny, and the Monongahela Pivers ; or 
more directly with the Ohio. 

After having completed the examination of the 
several portages across the mountains and of the 
head-waters of the streams with which he proposed 
to connect, he returned to Mount Vernon on the 4th 
day of October, 1784. On his return, he took a more 
southern route, and entered upon the eastern slope of 
the dividing ridge near the sources of the Shenandoah 
Piver, and descended upon the valley at a point not 
far from the site of the beautiful and flourishing town 
of Staunton. The entire distance he travelled during 
this tour exceeded six hundred and fifty miles. Gene- 
rally, it was performed on horseback; but in numer- 
ous instances, on account of the rough and rocky 
character of the country, he was compelled to dis- 
mount, lead his horse, and travel on foot. With few 
intervals, the routes that were examined lay through 
uncultivated, wild, and mountainous districts. Since 
his first exploration of the country in 1774, the 
improvement he had suggested as a means merely of 
defence and protection to the settlements west of the 
mountains against the hostile aggressions of the 
French and Indians, had materially changed its cha- 
racter. It had now become a measure of great 



38 WASHINGTON: 

national importance, both as regarded its effect upon 
trade and upon the integrity of the confederation, 
now the Union of the States. 

Shortly after his return to Mount Vernon, he pre- 
pared an interesting report of the proceedings of his 
tour, and the convictions of his own mind in reference 
to the object of his journey; which, with a transcript 
of his journal, he transmitted to the Governor of Vir- 
ginia. In his report he not only affirms, but clearly 
demonstrates, the practicability of the project, and 
recommends it to his favorable consideration with 
great powers of argument. He forcibly illustrates the 
advantages of its adoption by an array of facts which 
are incontrovertible, and presented in the report 
especially for the consideration of the legislature, 
as arguments indorsing the wisdom of the measure 
proposed as a means of strengthening the bonds of 
union between the East and the West, and, besides, 
eminently calculated to promote the general prosperity 
of the States. Upon the desirable results of the 
adoption of the policy suggested in his report, he 
dwells with peculiar emphasis and satisfaction. To 
its accomplishment he had directed his earliest and 
untiring energies, and now, at a maturer period, com- 
mends it as worthy of the countenance and favor of 
every patriot in the land. 

Entertaining a sincere wish for the success and 
good name of the administration of his warm personal 
friend Governor Harrison, he adds to this report the 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 39 

following language : " If you concur with me in the 
proposition I have suggested, and it is adopted by 
the legislature, it will signalize your administration 
as an important era in the history of this country." 

On another occasion, not long subsequent to the 
date of his communication to Governor Harrison, he 
addressed a letter of similar import to a distinguished 
member of Congress, in which he recommends the 
project with equal earnestness and force. As a 
measure of public policy, he remarks : " There is a 
matter, which, though it does not come before 
Congress wholli/, is in my opinion of great political 
importance, and ought to be attended to in time. It 
is to prevent the trade of the western territory from 
settling into the hands of the Spaniards or the British. 
But, it may be asked. How are we to prevent this % 
Happily for us, the way is plain. Extend the naviga- 
tion of the eastern waters ; communicate them as near 
as possible with those which run westward — open 
those to the Ohio ; open also such as extend from 
the Ohio towards Lake Erie, and we shall not only 
draw the produce of the western settlers, but the 
peltry and the fur trade of the lakes to our ports ; thus 
adding an immense increase to our exports, and 
binding these people to us by a chain which can 
never be broken." 

These two interesting communications contain the 
first suggestion and general outline of the system of 
internal improvements which was afterwards adopted 



40 WASHINGTON: 

by the general government as a favorite measure of 
national policy (I), and continued to be sustained by 
Congress until the year 1829, when it was abandoned 
in consequence of the exercise of the veto power of 
the Executive relative to the bill appropriating a 
specific amount for constructing the Maysville road. 

It does not come within the province or design of 
the compiler, or comport with the nature of this work, 
to analyze the policy of the system to which he has 
adverted ; or to enter into a critical examination of 
the local or general eifects which have resulted from 
its adoption by the government. But it may be well, 
when we are disposed to examine the principle of 
this measure, as a matter of public policy, to bring 
into view the vast extent of unoccupied territory 
which came into the possession of the government 
upon the achievement of our separate national exist- 
ence; to investigate the political propriety of afford- 
ing facilities for its settlement and improvement, and 
the importance of spreading the already dense popu- 
lation of the sea-board communities. With these 
prominent considerations before the mind, an adequate 
conception may be entertained of the extraordinary 
sagacity, wisdom, and foresight of the illustrious pro- 
jector, when he originally suggested the particular 
enterprise of opening an internal communication 
between the waters of the Atlantic and the Ohio 
River, and more especially when it is remembered 
that the suggestion was made long anterior to the 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 41 

separation of the colonies from the dominion of the 
British crown. 

At this early period, and indeed for several years 
after the adoption of the constitution in 1789, the 
population comparatively vi^as confined to a narrow 
strip of country along the Atlantic borders. The 
almost unbounded territory west of the Appalachian 
chain was, with few exceptions, an unbroken wilder- 
ness, occupied by unknown numbers and tribes of 
Indians, many of whom were of the most ferocious and 
savage character. Hence, it was not an easy matter 
to stimulate the public to engage in enterprises of 
internal communications. More than the mere know- 
ledge of the present, was necessary to secure the con- 
fidence of the people in projects of this nature. The 
universal respect that was entertained for General 
Washington; the unqualified confidence in his judg- 
ment, and in the wisdom and purity of the purpose 
which prompted all his actions, were, however, suffi- 
cient to enlist the attention of the Legislature of 
Virginia to entertain the proposition, until it could 
be brought before them in a more definite form. 
Accompanied by his distinguished friend and com- 
patriot Marquis de Lafayette, he made a visit to 
Richmond while the legislature was in session, where 
he was received with all the love and afi"ection which 
an enlightened, grateful, and patriotic people could 
bestow upon the Father of his Country. But with 
all the honors that were showered upon him by the 



42 WASHiisrGTON": 

authorities and every class of his fellow-citizens, in 
the most unbounded profusion, the favorite enterprise 
of his youthful days, which time and circumstances 
had matured into a scheme of national character, was 
not forgotten or neglected. His letter, previously 
addressed to Governor Harrison, was communicated 
to the legislature, and referred to an appropriate 
committee. In a few days the chairman reported a 
bill in accordance with its views, which was passed 
with remarkable unanimity. 

Having accomplished the purpose of his visit to 
Richmond, he returned to Mount Vernon, and from 
thence immediately addressed a letter to Mr. Madison, 
then a young but already distinguished member of the 
Virginia Legislature, on the subject of his recent visit 
to the seat of government. In this letter, he earnestly 
recommended (as the concurrent action of Maryland 
was necessary to render a bill available) the appoint- 
ment of commissioners, invested with full powers to 
confer with such gentlemen as might be selected by 
the Legislature of Maryland, to prepare the form of a 
bill which in its character and provisions would be 
acceptable to both States. Mr. Madison at once con- 
curred in the propriety of the recommendation, and 
immediately moved the appointment of a deputation 
of three individuals for the purpose of carrying its 
suggestions into effect ; the motion was adopted, and 
General Washington, General Gates, and Colonel 
Blackburn were appointed. 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY 



43 



The deputation, with the exception of Colonel 
Blackburn (who was prevented by serious indisposi- 
tion), proceeded to Annapolis about the 20th day of 
December, 1784. On their arrival in the ancient 
metropolis of Maryland, they were received with the 
most distinguished demonstrations of respect and 
confidence, and were formaUy welcomed by the citi- 
zens and corporate authorities, and by a committee 
of the legislature. 

General Washington, in behalf of the Virginia 
deputation, communicated to the General Assembly 
the object of their visit. A committee was imme- 
diately appointed by the legislature, composed of 
Thomas Stone, Samuel Hughes, Charles Carroll of 
Carrollton, John Cadwalader, Samuel Chase, John 
Debutts, George Digges, Philip Key, Gustavus Scot, 
and Joseph Dashiell, Esquires, to confer with the 
Virginia deputation on the subject in question. 

A meeting of the delegations was held at Annapolis 
on the 22d, and organized by calling General Wash- 
ington to the chair, and appointing Randolph B. 
Latimer, clerk. 

Upon assuming the chair, General Washington 
briefly stated that the object of the meeting was to 
confer together upon the subject of opening and im- 
proving the navigation of the River Potomac, and con- 
certing a plan for opening a proper road between the 
waters of the Potomac and the most convenient western 
waters. That the commissioners on the part of the 



44 WASHINGTON: 

commonwealth of Virginia were fully authorized and 
prepared to act on this subject with the committee 
appointed by the General Assembly of Maryland. 

The conference then proceeded to take the subject 
matter referred to them into their consideration ; and 
after a full discussion, and the free interchange of 
views, a committee was appointed, and after due 
deliberation submitted the following report, which 
was unanimously adopted: — 



" That it is the opinion of this conference, that the removing the 
obstructions in the River Potomac, and the making the same capa- 
ble of navigation from tide-water as far up the north branch of 
the said river as may be convenient and practicable, will increase 
the commerce of the commonwealth of Virginia and State of 
Maryland, and greatly promote the political interests of the United 
States, by forming a free and easy communication and connection 
with the people settled on the western waters, already very con- 
siderable in their numbers, and rapidly increasing, from the mild- 
ness of the climate and the fertility of the soil. 

" That it is the opinion of the conference, that the proposal to 
establish a company for opening the River Potomac, merits the 
approbation of, and deserves to be patronized by, Yirginia and 
Maryland; and that a similar law ought to be passed by the legis- 
latures of the two governments to promote and encourage so laud- 
able an undertaking, 

" That it is the opinion of this conference, that it would be 
proper for Yirginia and Maryland each to become subscribers to 
the amount of fifty shares, and that such subscription would evince 
to the public the opinion of the legislatures of the practicability 
and great utility of the plan, and that the example would encourage 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 45 

individuals to embark in the measure, give vigor an,d security to 
so important an undertaking, and be a substantial proof to our 
brethren of the western territory of our disposition to connect our- 
selves with them by the strongest bonds of friendship and mutual 
interest. 

• " That it is the opinion of this conference, that an act of Assembly 
of Virginia, ' For opening and extending the navigation of the 
River Potomac, from Fort Cumberland to tide-water,' ought to 
be repealed. 

" That it is the opinion of this conference, from the best in- 
formation they have obtained, that a road, to begin about the 
mouth of Stony River, may be carried in about twenty or twenty- 
two miles to the Dunker Bottom or Cheat River ; from whence, 
this conference are of opinion, that batteaux navigation may be 
made, though, perhaps, at considerable expense. That if such 
navigation cannot be effected by continuing the road about twenty 
miles further, it would intersect the Monongahela where the navi- 
gation is good, and has long been practised. 

" That a road from Fort Cumberland to Turkeyfoot would 
be about thirty-three miles, from whence an improvement of the 
Youghiogheny River would be necessary, though probably it might 
be done at less expense than the navigation of the Cheat River 
could be rendered convenient from the Dunker Bottom. 

" That it is a general opinion, that the navigation in the Potomac 
may be extended to the most convenient point below, or even 
above the mouth of Stony River, from whence to set off a road 
to Cheat River ; and this conference is satisfied that that road, 
from the nature of the country through which it may pass, wholly 
through Virginia and Maryland, will be much better than a road 
can be made at any reasonable expense from Fort Cumberland to 
the Youghiogheny, which must be carried through Pennsylvania, 

"That it is the opinion of this conference, that if the navigation 
on the Potomac should be carried to about the mouth of the Stony 
River, a communication with the western waters, through a road 



46 WASHINGTON: 

from thence extended even to tbe Monongahela, would be preferable 
in most points of view to that by a road from Fort Cumberland to 
Turkeyfoot, the only other way practicable, and in any degree 
useful ; that the communication by a road from Fort Cumberland 
to the present navigable parts of the Youghiogheny, and thence 
through that river, though in the opinion of this conference a 
second object only, would facilitate the intercourse with a very 
respectable number of the western settlers, contribute much to their 
convenience and accommodation, and that the benefits resulting 
therefrom to these States would compensate the expense of im- 
proving that road." 



The conferees therefore recommended that the 
Legislatures of Virginia and Maryland appoint skilful 
persons to view and accurately examine and survey 
the Potomac, from Fort Cumberland to the mouth of 
Stony E-iver, and the River Cheat from about the 
Dunker Bottom to the present navigable part thereof, 
and if they judge the navigation can be extended to 
a convenient distance above Fort Cumberland, that 
they may from thence survey, lay off, and mark, a 
road to the Cheat River, or continue the same to the 
navigation as they may think will most effectually 
establish the communication between the said eastern 
and western waters. And that the said road be cut 
and cleared not less than eighty feet, and properly 
improved and maintained in repair, not less than 
forty, nor more than fifty feet wide, at the joint ex- 
pense of both States ; and the conferees begged leave 
to recommend that each State appropriate three thou- 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 47 

sand three hundred and thirty-three and one-third 
dollars for the purpose; and the conference was 
further of opinion, that the States of Virginia and 
Maryland request permission of the State of Pennsyl- 
vania to lay out and improve a road through such 
part of that State as might be necessary in the best 
and most proper direction from Fort Cumberland to 
the navigable part of the Youghiogheny, and on such 
permission being obtained, that proper persons be 
appointed to survey, mark, clear, and improve, such 
road at the equal expense of Virginia and Maryland. 
This interesting report, drawn up under the personal 
advisement and in conformity with the views of the 
illustrious chairman, and signed by R. B. Latimer, 
Clerk, was in due time submitted to the Legislatures 
of Virginia and Maryland ; and forms the basis of the 
legislative action upon which the Potomac Company 
was incorporated and organized. 



The preamble to the act of incorporation declares that the 
extension of the navigation of the Potomac River from tide- 
water to the highest place practicable on the north branch will be 
of great public utility, and many persons are willing to subscribe 
large sums of money to effect so laudable and beneficial a work, 
and it is just and proper that they, their heirs and assigns, should 
be empowered to receive reasonable tolls forever, in satisfaction for 
the money advanced by them in carrying the work into execution, 
and the risk they run, and as it may be necessary to cut canals and 
erect locks and other works on both sides of the river, and the 
Legislatures of Maryland and Virginia, being impressed with the 



48 "WASHINGTON: 

importance of the object, are desirous of encouraging so useful 
an undertaking : Therefore enact — 

That it shall and may be lawful to open books in the city of 
Richmond, towns of Alexandria and Winchester, in Virginia, for 
receiving and entering subscriptions for the said undertaking, under 
the management of Jaqueline Ambler and John Beckley, at the 
city of Richmond, of John Fitzgerald and William Hartshorne at 
the town of Alexandria, and of Joseph Holmes and Edward Smith 
of the town of Winchester; and in Maryland, in the city of 
Annapolis, Georgetown, and Fredericktown, under the management 
of Christopher Richmond and John Davidson, Merchant, or either 
of them, at the city of Annapolis ; William Deakins and Benjamin 
Stoddert, or either of them, at Georgetown; Joseph Sim and 
Abraham Faw, or either of them, at Fredericktown ; which subscrip- 
tions shall be made personally or by power of attorney, and shall be 
made in Spanish milled dollars, but may be paid in foreign silver 
or gold coin of the value; that the said books shall be opened for 
receiving subscriptions on the eighth day of February next, and 
continue open for this purpose until the tenth day of May next 
inclusive, and on the seventeenth day of said month of May there 
shall be a general meeting of the stockholders at the town of 
Alexandria, of which meeting notice shall be given by the said 
managers or any four of them in the Virginia and Maryland 
Gazettes, at least one month next before the said meeting, and 
such meeting shall and may be continued from day to day until the 
business is finished, and the acting managers at the time and place 
hereinafter mentioned shall lay before such of the subscribers as 
shall meet according to the said notice, the books by them respect- 
ively kept, containing the state of the said subscriptions; and if 
one-half the capital sum hereinafter mentioned should, upon 
examination, appear not to have been subscribed, then the said 
managers, at the said meeting, are empowered to take and receive 
subscriptions to make up the deficiency, and a just and true list of 
all the subscribers, with the sum subscrilDed by each, shall be made 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 49 

out and returned by the said managers, or any four or more of 
them, under their hands, into the General Court of each State, to 
be there recorded; and in case more than two hundred and twenty 
two thousand and twenty two dollars and two-ninths of a dollar 
shall be subscribed, then the same shall be reduced to that sum by 
the said managers, or a majority of them, by beginning at, and 
striking off a share from all subscriptions, under the largest 
and above one share, until the sum is reduced to the capital of 
two hundred and twenty two thousand and twenty two dollars and 
two-ninths of a dollar, or until a share is taken from all subscrip- 
tions above one share, and lots shall be drawn between the sub- 
scribers of equal sums to determine the numbers in which such 
subscribers shall stand, on a list to be made for striking off as 
aforesaid ; and if the sum subscribed still exceeds the capital afore- 
said, then to strike off by the same rule until the sum subscribed 
is reduced to the capital aforesaid, or all the subscriptions are 
reduced to one share ; and if there still be an excess, then lots 
to be drawn to determine the subscribers who are to be excluded, 
to reduce the subscriptions to the capital aforesaid, which striking 
off shall be certified in the list aforesaid, and the said capital sum 
shall be reckoned and divided into five hundred shares of four 
hundred and forty four dollars and four-ninths of a dollar each, of 
which every person subscribing may take and subscribe for one or 
more whole shares, and not otherwise : Provided, that unless one- 
half of the said capital shall be subscribed as aforesaid, then the 
President and Directors are hereby empowered and directed to 
take and receive the subscriptions which shall first be offered in 
whole shares as aforesaid, until the deficiency shall be made up, a 
certificate of which additional subscriptions shall be made under 
the hands of the President and Directors, or a majority of them 
for the time being, and returned to and recorded in the General 
Courts aforesaid. 

That in case one-half of the said capital, or a greater sum, shall 
be subscribed as aforesaid, the said subscribers, and their heirs and 
4 



50 WASHINGTON: 

assigns, from the time of the said first meeting, shall be and are hereby 
declared to be incorporated into a company, by the name of the 
"Potomac Company," and may sue and be sued as such; and such 
of the said subscribers as shall be present at the said meeting, or 
a majority of them, are hereby empowered and required to elect a 
President and four Directors, for conducting the said undertaking, 
and managing all the said company's business and concerns, for and 
during such time, not exceeding three years, as the said subscribers, 
or a majority of them, shall think fit. And in counting the votes of 
all general meetings of the said company, each member shall be 
allowed one vote for every share as far as ten shares, and one vote 
for every five shares above ten, by him or her held at the time in the 
said company; and any proprietor, by writing under his or her hand, 
executed before two witnesses, may depute any other member or 
proprietor to vote and act as proxy for him or her, at any general 
meeting. 

That the said President and Director so elected, and their suc- 
cessors, or a majority of them assembled, shall have full power and 
authority to agree with any person or persons on behalf of said 
company, to cut such canals and erect such locks, and perform such 
other works as they shall judge necessary for opening, improving, 
and extending the navigation of the said river above tide-water, to 
the highest part of the North Branch to which navigation can be 
extended, and carrying on the same, from place to place, and from 
time to time, and upon such terms and in such manner as they 
shall think fit; and out of the money arising from the subscriptions 
and the tolls, and other aids hereinafter given, to pay for the same, 
and to repair and keep in order the said locks and other works 
necessary therein, and to defray all incidental charges; and also to 
appoint a treasurer, clerk, and such other ofiicers, toll-gatherers, 
managers, and servants as they shall judge requisite, and to agree 
for and settle their respective wages or allowances, and settle, 
pass, and sign their accounts, and also to make and establish rules 
of proceeding, and to transact all the other business and concerns 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 51 

of the said company, in and during the intervals between the 
general meetings of the same; and they shall be allowed as a 
satisfaction for their trouble therein, such sum of money as shall, 
by a general meeting of the subscribers, be determined : Provided, 
always, that the Treasurer shall give bond in such penalty and 
with such security as the said President and Directors, or a 
majority of them, shall direct, for the true and faithful discharge 
of the trust reposed in him, and that the allowance to be made to 
him for his services shall not exceed three pounds in the hundred, 
for the disbursements by him made ; and that no officer in the said 
company shall have any vote in the settlement or passing of his 
own account. 

That the said President and Directors and their successors, or a 
majority of them, shall have full power and authority, from time to 
time, as money shall be wanted, to make and sign orders for that 
purpose, and direct at what time, and in what proportion, the pro- 
prietors shall advance and pay off the sums subscribed, which 
orders shall be advertised at least one month in the Virginia and 
Maryland Gazettes ; and they are hereby authorized and empowered 
to demand and receive of the several proprietors, from time to time, 
the sums of money so ordered to be advanced for carrying on and 
executing, or repairing and keeping in order the said works, until 
the sums to be deposited into the hands of the Treasurer, to be by 
him disbursed and paid out as the said President and Directors, or 
a majority of them, shall order and direct. And if any of the 
said proprietors shall refuse or neglect to pay their said proportions 
within one month after the same so ordered and advertised as 
aforesaid, the said President and Directors, or a majority of them, 
may sell at auction and convey to the purchaser, the share or 
shares of such proprietor so refusing or neglecting payment, giving 
at least one month's notice of the sale in the Yirginia and Mary- 
land Gazettes, and after retaining the sum due, and charges of sale 
out of the money produced thereby, they shall refund and pay the 
overplus, if any, to the former owner ; and if such sale shall not 



52 WASHINGTON: 

produce the full sum ordered and directed to be advanced as afore- 
said, with the incidental charges, the said President and Directors, 
or a majority of them, may in the name of the company, sue for and 
recover the balance by action of debt, or on the case; and the said 
purchaser or purchasers shall be subject to the same rules and 
regulations, as if the said sale and conveyance had been made by 
the original proprietor, and to continue the succession of the said 
President and Directors, and to keep up the same number. 

That, from time to time, upon the expiration of the said term 
for which the said President and Directors were appointed, the 
proprietors of the said company, at the next general meeting, shall 
either continue the said President and Directors, or any of them, 
or shall choose others in their stead ; and in case of the death, 
removal, resignation, or incapacity of the President, or any of the 
said Directors, may and shall, in manner aforesaid, elect any other 
person or persons, to be President and Directors, in the room of 
him or them so dying, removing, or resigning ; and may at any 
of their general meetings, remove the President, or any of the 
Directors, and appoint others, for and during the remainder of the 
term for which such person or persons were at first to have acted. 
That every President and Director, before he acts as such, shall 
take an oath or affirmation, for the due execution of his office. 

That the presence of proprietors, having one hundred shares at 
the least, shall be necessary to constitute a general meeting ; and 
that there be a general meeting of proprietors on the first Monday 
in August in every year, at such convenient town as shall, from 
time to time, be appointed by the said general meeting ; but if a 
sufficient number shall not attend on that day, the proprietors who 
do attend, may adjourn such meeting from day to day, till a 
general meeting of proprietors shall be had, which may be con- 
tinued from day to day, until the business of the company is 
finished ; to which meeting the President and Directors shall make 
report, and render distinct and just accounts of all their proceed- 
ings, and on finding them fairly and justly stated, the proprietors 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 53 

then present, or a majority of them, shall give a certificate thereof, 
a duplicate of which shall be entered on the said company's books; 
and at such yearly general meetings, after leaving in the hands of 
the Treasurer such sum as the proprietors, or a majority of them, 
shall judge necessary for repairs and contingent charges, an equal 
dividend of all the net profits, arising from the tolls hereby 
granted, shall be ordered, and made to and among all the pro- 
prietors of the said company, in proportion to their several shares ; 
and upon any emergency in the interval between the said yearly 
meetings, the said President, or a majority of the said Directors, 
may appoint a general meeting of the proprietors of the said 
company, at any convenient town, giving at least one month's 
previous notice in the Maryland and Yirginia Gazettes, which 
meeting may be adjourned and continued as aforesaid. 

That for and in consideration of the expenses the said pro- 
prietors will be at, not only in cutting the said canals, erecting 
locks and other works, for opening the different falls of the said 
river, and in improving and extending the navigation thereof, but 
in maintaining and keeping the same in repair, the said canal and 
works, with all their profits, shall be, and the same are hereby 
vested in the said proprietors, their heirs and assigns, forever, as 
tenants in common, in proportion to their respective shares ; and 
the same shall be deemed real estate, and be forever exempt from 
payment of any tax, imposition, or assessment whatsoever; and 
it shall and may be lawful for the said President and Directors at 
all times, forever hereafter, to demand and receive, at the nearest 
convenient place below the mouth of the South Branch, and at or 
near Payne's Falls, and at or above the Great Falls of the River 
Potomac, and every of these places separately, for all commodities, 
transported through either of them respectively, tolls, according to 
the following table and rates, to wit : — 



54 



WASHINGTON: 





TOLLS. 


COMMODITIES. 


Atth 


e 














mouth 


of 


AtPay 


Qe's 


At the 




tlie Soi 


ith 




Fall 




Great Falls. 




B 


ranch. 














£ 


s. 


d. 


£ 


*. 


d. i £ 


s. d. 


Every pipe or hogshead of wine contain- 


















ing more than 65 gallons 





1 


6 





1 


6 





3 


Every hogshead of rum or other spirits . 





1 


3 





1 


3 





2 6 


Every hogshead of tobacco 





1 








1 








2 


Every cask between 65 and 35 gallons, 


















one-half of a pipe or hogshead ; barrels 


















one-fourth part; and smaller casks or 


















kegs in proportion, according to the 


















quality and quantity of their contents 


















of wine or spirits. 


















For casks of linseed oil, the same as spirits. 


















Every bushel of wheat, peas, beans, or 


















flaxseed 








i 








1 

4 





1 


Every bushel of Indian corn, or other 


















grain or salt ..... 








1 

■J 








i 





I 


Every barrel of pork .... 








G 








6 





1 0" 


Every barrel of beef .... 








4 








4 





8 


Every barrel of flour .... 








3 








3 





6 


Every ton of hemp, flax, potash, bar or 


















manufactured iron .... 





2 


6 





2 


6 





5 


Every ton of pig iron or castings 








10 








10 





1 8 


Every ton of copper, lead, or other ore 


















other than iron ore .... 





2 








2 








4 


Every ton of stone or iron ore . 








5 








5 





10 


Every hundred bushels of lime 





1 


3 





1 


3 





2 6 


Every chaldron of coals .... 








5 








5 





10 


Every hundred jiipe staves 








21 








91 

-'4 





4} 


Every hundred hogshead staves, or pipe 


















or hogshead heading .... 








li 








n 





3 


Every hundred cubic feet of plank or 


















scantling ; 


















Every hundred cubic feet of other timber ; 


















Every gross hundred weight of all other 


















commodities and packages ; 


















And every empty boat or vessel which 


















has not commodities on board to yield 


















so much, except an empty boat or ves- 


















sel returning, whose load has already 


















paid, at the respective places, the sums 


















fixed at each, in which case she is to 


















repass toll free ..... 





2 


6 





2 


6 





5 



which tolls are rated in sterling money, and may be discharged in 
foreign gold or silver coin of the present fineness at the following 
rates, to wit : — 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 55 

£. s. d. 
Spanisli milled piece of eiglit, or dollar . . .046 
Other coined silver, of equal fineness, per ounce . 5 1| 

English milled crowns 5 

French silver crowns . . . . . .050 

Johannes, weighing eighteen pennyweights . . 3 12 
Half Johannes, weighing nine pennyweights . . 1 16 
Moidores, weighing six pennyweights eighteen grains 17 
English Guineas, weighing five pennyweights six 

grains .........110 

French Guineas, weighing five pennyweights five 

grains 1 10 

Doubloons, weighing seventeen pennyweights . .363 
Spanish pistoles, weighing four pennyweights six 

grains . . . . . . . . . 16 6 

French milled pistoles, weighing four pennyweights 

and four grains . . . . . . . 16 4 

Arabian chequins, weighing two pennyweights three 

grains 086 

Other gold coin (German excepted) by the penny- 
weight 040 

It is however provided, tliat should any of the coins above 
enumerated, hereafter be rendered less valuable than they are at 
present, either by lessening their weight, or therewith adding a 
greater quantity of alloy than is in them respectively at present, 
then so much of any of the said coins, the value of which is so 
reduced, to be received for the tolls aforesaid as is equal in value 
to the said coins in their present state of fineness and weight, shall 
be payable for the said tolls at their reduced value only. And in 
case of refusal or neglect to pay the tolls at the time of offering to 
pass through any of the said places, and previous to the vessel's 
passing through the same, the collectors of the said tolls may law- 
fully refuse passage to such vessels ; and if any vessel shall pass 
without paying the said toll, then the said collectors may seize 
such vessel, wherever found, and sell the same at auction for ready 
money, which, so far as is necessary, shall be applied towards 



56 WASHINGTON: 

paying the said toll, and all expenses of seizure and sale, and the 
balance, if any, shall be paid to the owner, and the person having 
the direction of such vessel shall be liable for such toll, if the same 
is not paid by sale of such vessel as aforesaid : Provided, that the 
said proprietors, or a majority of them, holding, at least, three 
hundred shares, shall have full power and authority, at any 
general meeting, to lessen the said tolls or any of them; or to 
determine that any article may pass free of toll. 

That the said river, and the works to be erected thereon in virtue 
of this act, when completed, shall forever thereafter be esteemed 
and taken to be navigable as a public highway, free for the trans- 
portation of all goods, commodities, or produce, whatsoever, on 
payment of the tolls imposed by this act ; and no other toll or tax 
whatever, for the use of the water of the said river, and the works 
thereon erected, shall at any time hereafter be imposed, by both or 
either of the said States, subject, nevertheless, to such regulations 
as the legislatures of the said States may concur in, to prevent 
the importation of prohibited goods, or to prevent fraud in evading 
the payment of duties imposed in both or either of the said States, 
on goods imported into either of them. And whereas it is neces- 
sary for the making of said canal, locks, or other works, that a 
provision should be made for condemning a quantity of land for 
the purpose : 

That it shall and may be lawful for the said President and 
Directors, or a majority of them, to agree with the owners of any 
land through which the said canal is intended to pass, for the 
purchase thereof, and in case of disagreement, or in case the owner 
thereof shall be 2k feme covert, under age, non compos, or out of the 
State, on application to any two justices of the county, in which 
such land shall lie, the said justices shall issue their warrant under 
their hands, to the sheriff of their county, to summon a jury of 
twenty-four inhabitants of his county, of property and reputation, 
not related to the parties, nor in any manner interested, to meet 
on the land to be valued, at a day to be expressed in the warrant 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 57 

not less than ten nor more than twenty days thereafter ; and the 
sheriff, upon receiving the said warrant, shall forthwith summon 
the said jury, and when met, provided that not less than twelve do 
appear, shall administer an oath or affirmation to every juryman 
that shall appear " that he will faithfully, justly, and impartially 
value the land (not exceeding in any case the width of one hundred 
and forty feet), and all damages the owner thereof shall sustain by 
the cutting the canal through such land, according to the best of 
his skill and judgment ; and that, in such valuation, he will not 
spare any person through favor or affection, nor any person grieve 
through malice, hatred, or ill-will." And the inquisition thereof 
taken, shall be signed by the sheriff, and some twelve or more of 
the jury, and returned by the sheriff, to the clerk of his county, to 
be by him recorded. And upon every such valuation, the jury is 
hereby directed to describe and ascertain the bounds of the land 
by them valued, and their valuation shall be conclusive on all 
persons, and shall be paid by the said President and Directors, to 
the owner of the land or his legal representative ; and on payment 
thereof, the said company shall be seized in fee of such land, as if 
conveyed by the owner to them, and their successors by legal con- 
veyance : Provided, nevertheless, that if any further damage shall 
arise to any proprietor of land in consequence of opening such 
canal, or in erecting such works, than had been before considered 
and valued, it shall and may be lawful for such proprietor, as often 
as any such new damage shall happen, by application to, and a 
warrant from, any two justices of the county where the lands lie, 
to have such further damage valued by a jury in like manner, and 
to receive and recover the same of the said President and Directors. 
But nothing herein shall be taken or construed to entitle the pro- 
prietor of any such land to recover compensation for any damages 
which may happen to any mills, forges, or other water-works or 
improvements, which shall be begun or erected by such proprietor, 
after such first valuation, unless the said damage is wilfully or 
maliciously done by the said President and Directors, or some 
person by their authority. 



58 WASHINGTON: 

That the said President and Directors, or a majority of them, 
are hereby authorized to agree with the proprietors for the purchase 
of a quantity of land, not exceeding one acre, at or near each of 
the said places of receipt of tolls aforesaid, for the purpose of 
erecting necessary buildings ; and in case of disagreement, or any 
of the disabilities aforesaid, or the proprietor being out of the 
State, then such land may be valued, condemned, and paid for, as 
aforesaid, for the purpose aforesaid ; and the said company shall, 
upon payment of the valuation of the said land, be seized thereof 
in fee simple as aforesaid. And whereas, some of the places 
through which it may be necessary to conduct the said canals may 
be convenient for erecting mills, forges, and other water-works, and 
the persons possessors of such situations may design to improve 
the same, and it is the intention of this act not to interfere with 
private property, but for the purpose of improving and perfecting 
the said navigation. 

That the water or any part thereof conveyed through any canal 
or cut made by the said company, shall not be used for any purpose 
but navigation, unless the consent of the proprietors of the land 
through which the same shall be led, be first had; and the said 
President and Directors, or a majority of them, are hereby em- 
powered and directed, if it can be conveniently done to answer 
both the purposes of navigation and water-works aforesaid, to 
enter into reasonable agreements with the proprietors of such 
situation, concerning the just proportion of the expenses of making 
large canals or cuts capable of carrying such quantities of water as 
may be sufficient for the purposes of navigation, and also for any 
such water-works as aforesaid. 

That it shall and may be lawful for every of the said proprietors 
to transfer his share or shares, by deed, executed before two 
witnesses, and registered, after proof of the execution thereof, in 
the said company's books, and not otherwise, except by devise, 
which devise shall also be exhibited to the President and Directors 
and registered in the company's books before the devise or devises 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 59 

shall be entitled to draw any part of the profits from the said tolls : 
Provided, that no transfer whatsoever shall be made, except for 
one or more whole share or shares, and not for part of such shares, 
and that no share shall at any time be sold, conveyed, transferred, 
or held, in trust, for the use and benefit, or in the name of another, 
whereby the said President and Directors or proprietors of the said 
company, or any of them, shall or may be challenged, or made to 
answer, concerning any such trust, but that every such person 
appearing as aforesaid to be proprietor shall, as to the others of 
the said company, be to every intent taken absolutely as such, but 
as between any trustee and the person for whose benefit any trust 
shall be created, the common remedy may be pursued. And 
whereas it hath been represented to the General Assembly that 
sundry persons are willing and desirous, on account of the great 
public advantages and improvement their estates may receive 
thereby, to promote and contribute towards so useful an under- 
taking and to subscribe sums of money to be paid on condition 
the said works are really completed and carried into execution, 
but do not care to run any risk, or desire to have any property 
therein : 

That the said President and Directors shall be, and are hereby 
empowered to receive and take in subscriptions, upon the said 
condition and upon the said works being completed and carried into 
execution according to the true intent and meaning of this act ; 
that it shall and may be lawful for the said President and Directors, 
or a majority of them, in case of refusal or neglect of payment, in 
the name of the company as aforesaid to sue for and recover of the 
said subscribers, their heirs, executors or administrators, the sums 
by them respectively subscribed, by action of debt, or upon the 
case, in any court of record within the State. 

That if the said capital, and other aids already granted by this 
act, shall prove insufficient, it shall and may be lawful for the said 
company, from time to time, to increase the said capital by the 
addition of as many more whole shares as shall be judged necessary 



60 WASHINGTON: 

by the said proprietors, or a majority of them, holding at least 
three hundred shares, present at any general meeting of the said 
company. And the said President and Directors, or a majority of 
them, are hereby empowered and required, after giving at least one 
month's notice thereof in the Maryland and Virginia Gazettes, to 
open books at the before-mentioned places for receiving and enter- 
ing such additional subscriptions, in which the proprietors of the 
said company for the time being, shall and are hereby declared to 
have the preference of all others for the first thirty days, after the 
said books shall be opened as aforesaid, of taking and subscribing 
for so many whole shares as any of them shall choose. And the 
said President and Directors are hereby required to observe in all 
other respects the same rules therein, as are by this act prescribed, 
for receiving and adjusting first the subscriptions, and in like manner 
to return, under the hands of any three or more of them, an exact 
list of such additional subscribers, with the sums by them respect- 
ively subscribed, into the general courts aforesaid, to be there 
recorded, and all proprietors of such additional sums shall, and are 
hereby declared to be, from thenceforward, incorporated into the 
said company. 

That the tolls hereinbefore allowed, to be demanded and 
received at the nearest convenient place below the mouth of the 
South Branch are granted, and shall be paid on condition only, 
that the Potomac Company shall make the river well capable of 
being navigated in dry seasons, by vessels drawing one foot water, 
from the place on the North Branch at which a road shall set off 
to the Cheat River, agreeably to the determination of the Assem- 
blies of Virginia and Maryland, to and through the place which 
may be fixed on, below the mouth of the South Branch, for receipt 
of the tolls aforesaid ; but if the said river is only navigable as 
aforesaid from Fort Cumberland, to and through the said place 
below the mouth of the South Branch, then only two-thirds of the 
said tolls shall be there received. That the tolls hereinbefore 
allowed, to be demanded and received at or near Payne's Falls are 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 61 

granted and shall be payable on condition only, that the said 
Potomac Company shall make the river well capable of being navi- 
gated in dry seasons, by vessels drawing one foot water, from the 
place of collection, near the mouth of the South Branch to and 
through Payne's Falls as aforesaid. That the tolls hereinbefore 
allowed to be demanded and received at the Great Falls, are 
granted, and shall be payable on condition only that the said 
Potomac Company shall make the river well capable of being 
navigated in dry seasons, from Payne's Falls to the Great Falls, by 
vessels drawing one foot water, and from the Great Falls to tide- 
water, and shall, at or near the Great Falls, make a cut or canal, 
twenty-five feet wide, and four feet deep, with sufficient locks, if 
necessary, each of eighty feet in length, sixteen feet in breadth, 
and capable of conveying vessels or rafts drawing four feet water 
at the least, and shall make, at or near the Little Falls, such 
canal and locks, if necessary, as will be sufficient and proper to let 
vessels and rafts aforesaid into tide-water, or render the said river 
navigable in the natural course. 

And it is hereby provided, that in case the said company shall 
not begin the said work within one year after the company shall 
be formed, or if the navigation shall not be made and improved 
between the Great Falls and Fort Cumberland, in the manner 
hereinbefore mentioned within three years after the said company 
shall be formed, that then the said company shall not be entitled 
to any benefit, privilege or advantage under this act. And in case 
the said company shall not complete the navigation through and 
from the Great Falls, to tide-water as aforesaid, within ten years 
after the said company shall be formed, then shall all interest of 
the said company and all preference in their favor, as to the navi- 
gation and tolls, at, through, and from, the Great Falls to tide- 
water, be forfeited, and cease. 

That all commodities of the produce of either of the said States, or 
of the western country, which may be carried or transported through 
the said locks, canals, and river, may be landed, sold, or otherwise 



62 WASHINGTON: 

disposed of, free from any other duties, impositions, regulations, or 
restrictions of any kind, than the lilve commodities of the produce 
of the State in which the same may happen to be so landed, sold, 
shipped, or disposed of. 

That the Treasurer of this commonwealth shall be authorized 
and dii'ected to subscribe to the amount of fifty skares in behalf 
of the same, and the money necessary in consequence of such sub- 
scription, shall be paid as the same shall be required. And the 
Treasurer for the time being shall have a right to vote according 
to such shares, in person or by proxy, appointed by him, and shall 
receive the proportion of the tolls aforesaid, which shall from time 
to time become due to this State for the shares aforesaid. 

That so much of every act and acts within the purview of this 
act, shall be, and the same is, hereby repealed. 



An Act for vesting in George "Washington, Esq., a certain 
interest in the companies established for opening and 

EXTENDING THE NAVIGATION OF THE POTOMAC AND JaMES 

Rivers. 

Passed October, 1784. 

Whereas, it is the desire of the representatives of this common- 
wealth (Ya.) to embrace every suitable occasion of testifying their 
sense of the unexampled merits of George Washington, Esq., 
towards his country, and it is their wish, in particular, that those 
great works for its improvement, which, both as springing from the 
liberty which he has been so instrumental in establishing, and as 
encouraged by his patronage, will be durable monuments of his 
glory, may be made monuments also of the gratitude of his 
country. 

Be it enacted by the General Assembly, that the Treasurer be 
directed, in addition to the subscriptions he is hereby authorized to 
make, to the respective undertakings for opening the navigation of 
Potomac and James Rivers, to subscribe to the amount of fifty 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 63 

shares to tbe former, and a hundred shares to the latter, to be 
paid in like manner with the subscriptions above mentioned ; and 
that the shares so subscribed be, and the same are hereby vested 
in George Washington, Esquire, his heirs and assigns forever, in 
as effectual a manner as if the subscriptions had been made by 
himself or by his attorney. 



General Washington's Reply to the Letter of the Governor 
OF Virginia, transmitting a copy of the foregoing Act of 
THE General Assembly. 

Dear Sir : Your excellency having been pleased to transmit to 
me a copy of the act appropriating to my benefit certain shares in 
the companies for opening the navigation of James and Potomac 
Rivers, I take the liberty of returning to the General Assembly, 
through your hands, the profound and grateful acknowledgments 
inspired by so signal a mark of their beneficent intentions towards 
me. I beg you, sir, to assure them that I am filled on this occa- 
sion with every sentiment which can flow from a heart warm with 
love for my country ; sensible to every token of its approbation 
and affection, and solicitous to testify, in every instance, a respect- 
ful submission to its wishes. With these sentiments in my bosom, 
I need not dwell on the anxiety I feel in being obliged, in this 
instance, to decline a favor which is rendered no less flattering by 
the manner in which it is conveyed, than it is affectionate in itself. 
In explaining this obligation, I pass over a comparison of my 
endeavors in the public service with the many honorable testimonies 
of approbation which have already so far overrated and overpaid 
them ; reciting one consideration only, which supersedes the neces- 
sity of recurring to every other. When I was first called to the 
station with which I was honored during the late conflict for our 
liberties, to the diffidence which I had so many reasons to feel in 
accepting it, I thought it my duty to join a former resolution 



64 WASHINGTON: 

to shut my hand against every pecuniary recompense ; to this reso- 
lution I have invariably adhered ; from this resolution (if I had 
the inclination) I do not consider myself at liberty to depart. 
Whilst I repeat, therefore, my fervent acknowledgments to the 
legislature for their very kind sentiments and intentions in my 
favor, and at the same time beg them to be persuaded, that a re- 
membrance of this singular proof of their goodness towards me, 
will never cease to cherish returns of the warmest affection and 
gratitude, I must pray that their act, so far as it has for its object 
my personal emolument, may not have its effect. But if it should 
please the General Assembly to permit me to turn the destination 
of the fund vested in me, from my private emolument to objects of 
a public nature, it will be my study, in selecting these, to prove 
the sincerity of my gratitude for the honor conferred on me, by 
preferring such as may appear most subservient to the enlightened 
and patriotic views of the legislature. 

In accordance with the wishes so patriotically pre- 
sented by the reply of General Washington to the 
Governor of Virginia, the act was repealed during the 
same session; and it was further enacted that the 
said shares, with the tolls and profits hereafter accru- 
ing therefrom, should stand appropriated to such 
objects of a public nature, in such manner, and under 
such distributions as General Washington, by deed 
during his life, or by his last will and testament, 
should direct and appoint. 

A short time after the expiration of the period 
which was specified for receiving subscriptions to the 
capital stock, a general meeting was called to ascertain 
the number of shares that were taken, and if sufficient, 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 65 

formally to organize the company by the election of 
officers. 

A sufficient number of shares having been sub- 
scribed, a meeting was held in pursuance to previous 
public notice published in some of the Maryland and 
Virginia Gazettes, at Alexandria, on the 17th day of 
May, 1785. 

An unusual degree of public feeling was already 
manifested in the proposed management of the affairs 
of the company. It was an enterprise of a novel 
character, and prompted more by the impulse of 
patriotic considerations, than by the influence of an- 
ticipated pecuniary advantages to the subscribers ; it 
had enlisted in its success some of the most prominent 
and distinguished men of the two sister States. The 
meeting was regarded with no ordinary concern. 
Public spirited individuals from several parts of 
Virginia and Maryland proceeded to Alexandria to 
witness its proceedings. The city presented a 
spectacle which at that early day was seldom wit- 
nessed. The general belief that the immortal "Wash- 
ington, the man who had borne his country in 
triumph through the storms of the Revolutionary 
War, and achieved its national independence, would 
accept the office of President of the company, was of 
itself calculated to impart an extraordinary interest 
to the occasion. "When the hour for opening the 
meeting had arrived, a large number of citizens were 

in attendance. The meeting was called to order by 
5 



66 WASHINGTON: 

one of the proprietors, and was subsequently organized 
by electing Daniel Carrol, Esquire, Chairman, and 
Charles Lee, Esquire, Clerk. 

Upon the presentation of the subscription books, it 
was ascertained that the shares subscribed were — 

Virginia. 

In the Richmond Book 100 Shares. 

Alexandria, do 135 do 

Winchester, do 31 do 

Maryland. 

Annapolis, do 73 do 

Georgetown, do 42 do 

Frederick, do 22 do 

amounting to four hundred and three shares, making 
a capital of forty thousand three hundred pounds 
sterling money. 

On motion, it was then resolved, That the sub- 
scribers present in person and by proxy, proceed to 
the choice of President and Directors, who shall 
continue in office until the first Monday in the month 
of August 1786, and that at every general meeting, 
in taking the votes of the proprietors, each proprietor 
shall give in his vote or votes at the Clerk's table, in 
writing, and where the vote or votes shall be given 
by proxy, that the name of each constituent shall also 
be inserted. 

The chairman then suggested to the meeting the 
importance of an examination of the deputations and 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 67 

the proxies before the election, and appointed Charles 
---Sims and James Keith as the examining committee. 
This committee having discharged the duties of their 
appointment, reported that the deputations from 
Thomas Blackburn to William Brown, from Thomas 
Johnson to Abraham Farr, and from John Lyon to 
Abraham Farr, were illegal and insufficient, and 
executed only before one witness, and could not be 
admitted to vote at this election. The report was 
adopted. 

The proprietors present in person and those who 
were absent, but legally represented by proxies, then 
proceeded to the choice of President and four 
Directors, and on examining and counting the votes, 
a majority was in favor of his Excellency George 
Washington to be President, and Thomas Johnston, 
Thomas Sim Lee, John Fitzgerald and George Gilpin, 
Esquires, to be Directors, and thereupon the chair- 
man declared his excellency George Washington 
President, and Thomas Johnston, Thomas Sim Lee, 
John Fitzgerald and George Gilpin, Esquires, 
Directors of the Potomac Company. 

This announcement of the result of the election 
was received by the meeting with unbounded joy and 
satisfaction. 

The papers, forms, and proxies in the hands of the 
several deputations, and the subscription books, as also 
the minutes of the meeting, were then placed in charge 
of the President and Directors, and, after designating 



68 WASHINGTON: 

the day and place for the first meeting of the Board, 
the meeting adjourned. 

The Board, agreeably to appointment, met in Alex- 
andria on Monday the 30th day of May, 1785, to be 
duly qualified. 

Present: Gen. George Washington, President. 

George Gilpin, John Fitzgerald, Thomas Sim Lee, 
and Thomas Johnston, Directors. 

George Gilpin administered the oath of office pre- 
scribed by the General Assemblies of Virginia and 
Maryland to George Washington, John Fitzgerald, 
Thomas Sim Lee, and Thomas Johnston; and John 
Fitzgerald administered the oath of office to George 
Gilpin. 

The Board having been qualified, proceeded to the 
selection of individuals for treasurer and clerk, and 
appointed William Hartshorne, of Alexandria, trea- 
surer, and John Potts, Jun., of the same place, clerk. 
The former allowed three per cent, upon the disburse- 
ments as a compensation for his services, and to enter 
into a bond in the penalty of ten thousand pounds 
sterling, with two good and sufficient securities, to be 
approved by the Board. The latter to be paid twenty 
one shillings sterling for each day he shall attend the 
Board, besides his reasonable expenses when he 
occasionally attends the sittings or sessions of the 
Board out of Alexandria, and thereby incurs an extra- 
ordinary expense. 

The company, now fully organized, entered upon 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 69 

the commencement of its active duties with flattering 
prospects of success. With the illustrious Washing- 
ton at its head, and the encouragement of the most 
distinguished men of Maryland and Virginia among 
its subscribers, the enterprise was one of extreme 
interest both to the company and the public. 

When the members of the Board were assembled — 
the President ofiered his congratulations upon the 
happy condition which brought them together, and in 
brief and eloquent terms animated their zeal, in the 
prosecution of the enterprise by his own unbounded 
patriotism and public spirit. 

Many suggestions were submitted and discussed 
relative to the most eligible plan for practical opera- 
tions; and it was at length agreed: to divide the line 
of the river to be improved into two sections; the first 
or lower section to extend from tide water to the 
upper part of the Shenandoah Falls — and the upper 
section include the river between the upper part of 
the Shenandoah Falls, and the highest point prac- 
ticable upon the North Branch, and to which the 
improvement could be extended and made navigable. 

To each of these sections was assigned a general 
director, skilled in the character of the work to be 
performed, one suitable assistant, three overseers, and 
fifty men. 

To obtain the services of the most competent and 
skilful men to conduct the opening and improving 
the navigation, the Board directed advertisements to 



70 WASHINGTON: 

be inserted in the Alexandria, Baltimore, and one or 
more of the Philadelphia papers, giving notice that it 
would meet at Alexandria on the first day of July 
next "to agree with two persons who best understood 
the character of the work to be done, and its manage- 
ment, to the greatest advantage." 

On account of the toilsome character of the work, 
the ordinary wages of that day were not sufficient 
inducements to the laboring classes to enter into the 
service of the company. A more liberal scale of 
allowance was accordingly adopted; and in addition 
to the advance upon the wages, good and substantial 
provisions were supplied and a reasonable quantity of 
spirits. As a further encouragement to the hands, it 
was proposed to add yet more to the wages of those 
who were most dexterous and skilful in boring and 
blowing rocks, and the conductor was directed to be 
at Seneca on the 1st and at Shenandoah on the 14th 
of July, to examine such as would offer for this service. 

In the mean time, the Clerk was directed to write a 
letter to Capt. Abraham Sheppard, of Sheppardstown, 
requesting him to contract for the building of two 
very strong boats for the use of the company, each to 
be thirty five feet long, eight feet wide or upwards, 
and not less than twenty inches deep, in the common 
manner of the flats used at the ferries on the Potomac 
above tide-water. 

A similar letter was written to Col. James 
Clapham, in whose judgment and experience in the 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 71 

construction of boats, the President and Directors 
entertained the greatest confidence. 

The character of the river above Payne's Falls was 
at this time little known. From the junction of the 
Shenandoah to the sources of the North Branch was 
an almost uninterrupted wilderness, and few persons 
had penetrated the gorges and passes of the numerous 
mountain ranges through which it had forced its way. 
But one individual connected with the enterprise of 
the Potomac Company, had perhaps ever viewed the 
bold and picturesque scenery which bordered upon 
the stream, or the rocks and falls that broke its 
surface. To have a correct view of the difficulties 
that would be encountered in the progress of the 
improvement of its navigation, it was important that 
the members of the Board should possess a personal 
knowledge of the part of the river to be improved, 
and it was accordingly determined to proceed to an 
examination, immediately after the general meeting 
in August next. 

The selection of persons to fill the subordinate 
stations in the company, was a matter of much solici- 
tude. After repeated notifications through the 
columns of the public press in Philadelphia, Virginia, 
and Maryland, inviting the attention of suitable 
individuals to the subject, and the personal efforts of 
many of the subscribers, superadded to the very 
liberal allowances that were offered, having all failed 
of success, Col. Gilpin, a member of the Board, was 



WASHINGTON: 



specially delegated with full power and authority to 
act on this subject in behalf of the company. 

Believing that a personal interview with.api3licants 
would be most likely attended with success, he gave 
public notice that he would be at Seneca and Shenan- 
doah Falls on the 14th of July ensuing, to meet such 
persons as would offer for the stations that were 
specified, and if, upon proper examination of their 
credentials, and a satisfactory conviction of their 
capacity and integrity, were adjudged worthy of the 
appointment, he would at once, under the authority 
vested in him, confer it upon them, and fix the time 
when the work should commence. 

The next annual meeting of the Board was held, 
agreeably to previous notice, in Georgetown, on the 
1st day of August, 1785. 

Present: Gen. George Washington, President. 

Thomas S. Lee, John Fitzgerald, Thomas John- 
ston, George Gilpin, Directors. 

The first business in order was the examination of 
sundry accounts amounting to £182 7^. 4tl, which, 
having been found correct, the Treasurer was directed 
to pay. 

It was also ordered that the Treasurer forthwith 
advance to Mr. James Rumsey, the principal manager, 
the sum of fifty pounds, Virginia currency, as a 
contingent fund, and to be expended in small sums 
for the use of the company, and at stated periods 
to render an account accompanied by the vouchers. 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 73 

The subject which mainly occupied the attention 
of the Board at this meeting, was the accountabihty 
of the subordinate officers relative to the disburse- 
ments of money. The arrangement that had been 
made for commencing the work, required the adop- 
tion of a rigid system, and from which no departure 
could be admitted under any circumstances upon the 
mere option of an assistant or overseer — nor by the 
authority of the principal manager, independent of the 
subsequent action of the Board. The plan was simple 
and efficient. Each overseer was directed to keep a 
book in which the name of every person employed 
was enrolled, with columns properly ruled for an exact 
account of the days on which each hand was employed, 
and also of the days when absent, and every fortnight 
he was required to render an account to the assistant 
manager, who, if he approved the same, to certify 
thereto, and present it to the principal manager, and 
if he also approved of the account, it should be au- 
thority to the Treasurer to furnish such sum of money 
as would be sufficient to discharge the account. 

After the transaction of the most important business 
of the meeting, and it had adjourned, the President 
and members of the Board proceeded to the Shenan- 
doah Falls for the purpose of making the examination 
that would enable them to decide upon the kind of 
improvement to overcome the difficulties the Falls 
presented in the navigation of the river. Viewing the 
still water above and below, and the character of the 



74 WASHINGTON: 

obstructions in the Falls, the members were unanim- 
ously of the opinion that no lock would be required, 
and that nothing more was necessary than the removal 
of the rocks that were irregularly scattered over the 
Falls ; and a party was organized to clear and improve 
the navigation from Payne's upwards, through the 
Shenandoah Falls, and placed under the direction of 
Mr. Rumsey, the principal director, whom Col. Gilpin 
had just appointed. 

The following letter of instructions was written to 
him by the President : — ' 



Shenandoah Falls, 3d day of August, 1785. 
Sir : As you have attended the President and Directors in their 
view and examination of the river, from the upper part of the 
Seneca Falls to the Great Falls, and from the flat water above to 
the flat water below the Shenandoah Falls, you are possessed not 
only of their opinion of the course in general to be improved, and 
their idea of effecting the work, but also of their sentiments on 
many particular spots. The Pi'esident and Directors have no 
doubt, could they personally attend the work in its progress, and 
see the river at those places in its different situations, they might 
in many instances depart from their present opinions. The nature 
of the work and our situations make it therefore necessary to leave 
it to your discretion to vary from what you may have conceived 
our opinion to be as to the tract or manner of executing the work, 
and we do it the more cheerfully, as you seem to be equally im- 
pressed as ourselves with the importance of a straight navigation, 
and the advantages of avoiding, as far as well may be, to cross 
currents. The opportunity you will have to watch the water at 
different heights, and your industry in examining more minutely 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 75 

the different obstructions, will enable you to exercise the dis- 
cretionary power left with you, to your own credit and our satis- 
faction. 

You are already apprised of our change of resolution as to the 
plan of working the upper party, and the reasons which induced 
that change, and as effecting the navigation through the Shenan- 
doah and Seneca Falls, will be immediately advantageous to a 
great extent of country, you are not to consider yourself restricted 
to the number of fifty hands for each party, but you are to employ 
as many as you have an opportunity to engage, and you can work 
to advantage, so that the work may be expedited ; but you must 
immediately, on exceeding one hundred in the whole, give informa- 
tion to the President, lest any disappointment should happen in 
the ready payment of the company's debts, which by all means is 
to be avoided. 

For the President and Directors, 

G. WASHINGTON, P. 

Upon the receipt of this letter of instructions from 
General Washington, Mr. Rumsey immediately pre- 
pared himself to carry its purposes into effect, and 
although much was left to his discretion, he found 
few occasions to depart from the line marked out for 
him to pursue. It required a personal knowledge of 
the river for a succession of years, and at its different 
stages of water, to form an adequate idea of the best 
course for the contemplated improvement. Of this 
the Board were fully satisfied, and the discretionary 
power which was given to Mr. Rumsey on account 
of his intimate knowledge of the river and its condi- 
tion from the lowest stages of water to the highest 



76 WASHINGTON: 

freshets, and his active and energetic character, the 
members felt every assurance that the responsibility 
and trust they devolved upon him could not be com- 
mitted to better hands. 

The first object to which his attention was directed, 
was to trace out the line or channel of the river to be 
cleared and improved, and which he then divided 
into parts, to each of which he assigned a specified 
number of hands, under the charge of an overseer. 

The hands were accordingly distributed iipon the 
line, and were soon at work. The condition of the 
water was favorable for prosecuting the improvement 
with energy and zeal, and the organization seemed to 
be well calculated for active operations. 

Notwithstanding the favorable circumstances un- 
der which the company was organized, the liberal 
allowance to the workmen for their services, and the 
disposition of the Board and of the principal conductor 
to abate the severity of the labor by granting every 
reasonable indulgence, one month had scarcely 
elapsed before a turbulent and insubordinate spirit 
was manifested among the hands, and to a degree as 
to require immediate and signal correction. Irregu- 
larity, misconduct, and insolent behavior placed the 
authority of the conductor and his subordinates at 
defiance. The work that was directed to be done 
was either entirely omitted or but partially performed, 
and it was evident to the conductor that not much 
progress could be made in improving the navigation, 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 77 

unless at least one-half of the laborers then on the 
line were discharged and the number replaced by 
others more orderly and obedient. Mr. Rumsey was 
not long in deciding upon the course to be pursued. 
He made a report of all the facts relative to the 
insubordination of the workmen to General Wash- 
ington in a written communication, and expressed his 
hope that it would receive the earliest attention. 
Upon the receipt of this communication, a meeting 
of the Board was called at Alexandria on the 9th of 
September, 1785, and after a full exposition of the 
difficulties among the hands, it was unanimously 
declared, as the opinion (of the Board) " that it would 
facilitate the work to purchase sixty servants for the 
use of the company ;" and the Secretary was directed 
to open a correspondence with some person in 
Baltimore and in Philadelphia to ascertain the best 
terms upon which they could be procured. 

As soon as the Secretary had received replies to 
his letters, he advised the President of the company, 
who thereupon called a meeting of the Board at 
Alexandria, Sept. 26th, 1785. 

Present: Gen. George Washington, President. 

Geo. Gilpin, John Fitzgerald, Directors. 

Sundry accounts properly authenticated, amounting 
to £182 85. 3fZ., were presented and passed, and the 
Treasurer was directed to pay them. 

The subject for which the meeting was particularly 
called was then introduced by the President, and the 



78 WASHINGTON: 

report he had received from Mr. Rumsey, and the 
answers from Philadelphia and Baltimore to the letters 
from the Secretary were read ; and, after due delibera- 
tion and discussion, it was finally ordered that the 
Secretary be directed to write letters to Messrs, 
Stewart «& Plunket, of Baltimore, and Mr. John 
Maxwell Nesbit, of Philadelphia, the gentlemen to 
whom the Secretary had previously made application, 
" to purchase for the use of the company sixty servants, 
and to request of each of them, that as soon as there 
may be an arrival at either place, out of Avliich the 
number can probably be procured, immediately to 
send an express at the expense of the company, Avith 
information of it, that they may avail themselves of 
the first opportunity of getting them out, and also to 
prevent a purchase being made at both places." 

In the mean time, it was important that the enter- 
prise should be prosecuted with as much energy and 
assiduity as the circumstances under which the 
company was then placed would allow. The water 
in the river was unusually low, and the obstructions 
to be removed from the channel were discoverable 
throughout the almost entire length to be improved. 
It was also a season of extraordinary health in the 
valley of the Potomac, and provisions were abundant 
and cheap. 

Influenced by these considerations, the Board 
declared it as their unanimous opinion that Mr. 
Rumsey, the conductor, should engage such of the 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 79 

hands as deserve encouragement, to continue in the 
service of the company on the best terms he could 
obtain from them, and until the further order of the 
Board ; and that a meeting of the Board of President 
and Directors be held at Georgetown, in the State of 
Maryland, on Monday the seventeenth day of October 
next, of which notice to be given to the Directors, and 
also to Mr. Rumsey and Mr. Stewart, the principal 
and the assistant managers. 

On the 10th of October, notice was accordingly 
transmitted to the several members to attend a meet- 
ing of the Board in Georgetown on the day proposed, 
to take the existing condition of the affairs of the 
company into consideration, and to adopt such 
measures as would more effectually secure the pro- 
prietors against the recurrence of the interruptions 
which had several times seriously checked the progress 
of the improvement of the channel of the Potomac. 

In consequence of the absence of one of the mem- 
bers, the Board was not organized until the 18th of 
October, when it met at the Great Falls of the 
Potomac Piver. 

Present: Gen. George Washington, President. 

John Fitzgerald, George Gilpin, Thos. Lee, and 
Thos. Johnston, Directors. 

The President made a detailed statement of the 
causes which had urged him to call a special meeting, 
submitting to them such considerations as he deemed 
appropriate to the occasion, and earnestly invoked the 
action of the Board on the subject. 



80 ttashington: 

The session continued during two days. Many 
suggestions were made and discussed, opinions were 
freely expressed, and after a frank and candid con- 
sideration of all the facts presented by the principal 
superintendent, in whom entire confidence was 
entertained, it was ordered : — 

That one hundred good and able working negroes should be 
hired for the use of the company, for each of whom there should 
be an allowance of twenty pounds, Virginia currency, also clothing, 
and to pay their levies and furnish them with rations, viz : 1 lb. 
salt pork, 1^ lb. salt beef, or 1^ lb. fresh beef, or mutton, and a 
sufficiency of bread each day, and also a reasonable quantity of 
spirits, when necessary. 

That the negroes are to come well clothed, or to be supplied 
with what may be deficient, which is to be stopped out of the next 
year's clothing. 

It was also ordered : — 

That the monthly wages of the men should remain as heretofore, 
but without making a deduction for the time the weather would 
not admit of their working. 

The applications were requested to be made to Mr. 
William Hartshorne, in Alexandria, or to Mr. James 
Rumsey, the principal superintendent, who were duly 
authorized to enter into contracts for the hands : — 

Before the adjournment, the following accounts 
were presented and directed to be paid. 

Josias Clapham . . . . . £43 55. Od. 

John Potts, Jr 6 8 3 

John Fitzgerald 2 2 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 81 

It was not long before a sufficient number of hands 
were engaged, and divided into three working 
parties viz: at the Great Falls, at the Seneca Falls, 
and at the Shenandoah Falls. 

The improvements of the channel at these important 
points were pushed witl^due energy and zeal. Some 
of the largest rocks in the two upper falls were 
sufficiently blasted, and their fragments generally 
removed from the channel before a rise in the river 
compelled a suspension of the work. In the early 
part of November the river began to rise, and soon 
overflowed its banks. Much rain had fallen, and the 
mountain streams at and near the heads of the North 
and South Branches of the Potomac became unusually 
high, and one of the most extraordinary freshets in 
the river was the result. 

Driven by the high water the majority of the hands 
were compelled to abandon their work, and were 
directed to proceed to the Great Falls, where they 
were to be occupied in building huts for the accom- 
modation of the men during the winter. 

Mr. Rumsey was also authorized to contract for the 
building of two boats for the use of the company, on 
such construction as he should think "most advan- 
tageous for forwarding the work, and as many more 
boats on the plan of those formerly constructed as he 
should deem indispensably necessary." 

Many accounts remaining unsettled, the President, 
before the Board adjourned, requested them to be 



82 WASHINGTON: 

rendered to the office of the Treasurer, in Alexandria, 
as soon as they could be prepared. On the 21st 
November, 1785, accounts with proper vouchers were 
brought before the Committee of Directors, passed, 
and ordered to be paid, amounting to £260 155. 5^. 

The rainy weather was of an unusually long dura- 
tion, and it was not probable, from the advanced 
period of the season, that much more work could be 
done in the channel of the river during the remaining 
part of the fall. The general superintendent was 
accordingly instructed to concentrate the working 
parties at the Great Falls where it was contemplated 
to engage them in excavating the prism of the canal 
around the falls, and in the building of ordinary 
boats. 

Much diversity of opinion prevailed as to the most 
feasible line for the canal. The character of the 
ground generally was good, but the particular locality 
of the down lock and its embouchure into the River 
below the falls required a more particular examination 
and survey of the route than had yet been given. 
Personal examinations were made by the several 
members of the Board, and it was finally directed that 
an accurate draft of the " track for the proposed canal 
be made with the courses and distances and also of the 
" different risings and fallings in the ground," and 
that it be prepared in time to be submitted to the 
Board at the meeting to be held at the Great Falls in 
March following. 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 83 

It was also ordered that as soon as the place for 
taking out the water from the river should be 
determined on, all the hands not otherwise engaged 
to be employed in opening that part of the canal, and 
to continue the excavation to the level of the bed of 
the river. 

Before the adjournment of the meeting, a letter 
was also read to the Board from William Lyles «& Co. 
proposing to furnish "what rum might be necessary 
for the use of the hands employed by the company on 
the river." The offer was liberal, and was accepted for 
supplying those engaged below the Shenandoah Falls 
at two shillings per gallon until the further order of 
the Board. 

The surveys directed to be made were immediately 
commenced — sections and cross sections were run, and 
very minute and accurate drafts of the ground were 
prepared, presenting at a glance the elevations and 
depressions, the cutting and filling that would be 
required in the adoption of either of the two routes to 
which the attention and labor of the surveying and 
examining party was directed. 

During the interval between this meeting and the 
time appointed for the next, the attention of the 
President was much occupied in awakening the 
public mind to the importance of prosecuting the work 
which had been so generously undertaken by the 
proprietors of the company. The original motive 
which actuated the stockholders seemed for some 



84 ttashington: 

cause to have abated, and it required the master spirit 
of the enterprise to be exerted, to prevent at this 
important and critical juncture, a total abandonment 
of the project. With the powerful influence of the 
illustrious head of the Potomac Company the cloud 
which for a brief time hung over its future prospects 
was dispelled, and new hopes cheered and animated 
its aifairs. The State of Maryland had failed to pay 
the sums due on the shares it held, and a large number 
of individual stockholders had also neglected to meet 
their instalments. The funds of the company were 
nearly exhausted. The treasury was no longer able 
to liquidate the claims of individuals against it, and a 
total prostration of its credit seemed inevitable unless 
soon relieved. This relief fortunately was afforded 
under the energetic action of the President and Board 
of Directors, who had a meeting at the Great Falls 
on the 1st and 2d days of March, 1786. 

Having before them the Report of Mr. William 
Hartshome, of Alexandria, the Treasurer of the 
company, which gave a full and interesting statement 
of the finances, they devoted two days to the consider- 
ation of the best means to obtain funds to continue 
the improvement of the navigation of the river. To 
fail of success was an abandonment of the entei-prise, 
and might bring discredit upon the proprietors ; every 
honorable efl'ort was suggested and discussed, and it 
was finally ordered: "That the Treasurer send an 
express to Annapolis to make application for payment 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 85 

of the sums due on shares which have been subscribed 
for by the State, and also to such others as have not 
been made agreeable to a former order of this Board, 
and that he send to such persons in the neighborhood 
of Alexandria as have been delinquents, and also that 
he write to other defaulters who are at a distance, on 
the subject." 

It was also ordered that the subscribers and 
proprietors of the company pay into the hands of 
William Hartshorne, the Treasurer, ten pounds 
sterling on each respective share on or before the 
fifteenth day of April next, and the further sum of 
ten pounds sterling on or before the fifteenth day of 
June next. 

These applications were not disregarded. Many 
of the proprietors, immediately after receiving the 
notice, transmitted the sums declared to be due on the 
15th of April — with assurances of the payment of 
the second assessment two months thereafter. 

With this encouraging prospect before them, the 
President and Board entered into arrangements to 
extend the line of operations. The number of hands 
was increased, additional working parties were 
organized, and Mr. James Smith was appointed an 
assistant manager for one year, to superintend the 
work upon the same terms and with the same 
allowance granted to Mr. Richardson Stewart, the 
first assistant. 

Before the President and members of the Board 



86 WASHINGTON: 

left the Great Falls, they made a very minute 
personal examination of the several routes which 
were marked out by the surveying party to get below 
the Falls, and they determined to adopt that which 
was traced between the river and Falls Island, as the 
most eligible. A large party was at once employed 
in the excavation, and the work was carried on with 
commendable energy and force. 

It was also determined to give public notice that 
proposals would be received until the meeting of the 
15th April to furnish the men employed at and below 
the Shenandoah with rations for one year. The 
advertisement was first published in the Alexandria 
papers on the 3d of March, 1786. 

On the 15th day of April, the President called a 
meeting of the Board at Alexandria, to act upon the 
several proposals that were received to supply the 
rations. The terms offered were generally favorable, 
and the contract was awarded to Mr. Abel Westfall, 
at the rate of one shilling, Virginia currency, for 
each ration, who immediately after, with his sureties 
for the faithful performance of the contract, John 
Reynolds and Patrick Murray, executed the necessary 
bond. 

The annual meeting of the subscribers was appointed 
for the 7th day of August, 1786, for the election of a 
President and Directors for the ensuing year, and to 
that day the meeting of the Board was adjourned to 
make their annual report. 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 87 

Alexandria, August 7, 1786. 
The President and Directors of the Potomac Company beg leave 
to report that they have called for four dividends on the several 
subscriptions, as follows : — 

The 1st of 5 per cent. 
2d " 2^ " " 
3d " 10 " " 
4th " 10 " " 
Amounting in the whole to twelve thousand, four hundred and 
thirty pounds sterling, of which there has been paid five thousand 
nine hundred and forty pounds sterling. 

The several expenditures will appear by the Treasurer's account, 
who has in hand one thousand six hundred and thirty-six pounds 
18s. ^d. Virginia currency, equal to one thousand two hundred 
and twenty-seven pounds 10s. 2d. sterling. 

With respect to the business, we beg leave to refer to the 
Secretary's books, which contain all our orders relating thereto. 

In consequence of these orders the work has been carried on at 
the Seneca and Shenandoah Falls while the waters were low enough 
to admit of it. After the river rose too high, the hands were 
removed to the Great Falls, where a considerable progress has 
been made in cutting a canal, and the most of the men are still 
employed on account of the uncommon wet season. 

We beg leave to remind the subscribers that this is the day 
appointed by law for electing a President and Directors for the 
ensuing year. 

In behalf of the Directors, 

G. WASHINGTON, P. 



This being the day for the general meeting of the 
company, a sufficient number of the members appeared 
to constitute an organization for business. Doctor 



88 WASHINGTON: 

David Stewart was appointed Chairman, and Charles 
Lee, Esq., Secretary. 

General Washington presented to the Chairman the 
report of the President and Directors for the past 
year, which being read and approved of, was ordered 
to be entered on the minutes of the company. 

The members then proceeded to the annual election 
of a President and four Directors, when the following 
named gentlemen were elected : — 

General Washington, President. 

Thomas Johnston, Thomas S. Lee, George Gilpin, 
John Fitzgerald, Directors. 

A committee consisting of Col. Robt. T. Hooe, 
Capt. John Thos. Boucher, and Col. William Syles, 
were appointed to examine the Treasurer's account, 
and Directors' books of proceeding for the past year, 
and also to receive an account from each of the 
Directors of their expenditures, and to make report 
thereof to the meeting. 

These duties having been performed, they reported, 
" that they had carefully perused the books of 
proceedings and orders, from which it appeared to 
them, that the affairs and business of the company 
was directed and managed with great attention, care, 
and ability ; and in their opinion the President and 
Directors ought to be allowed out of the money of 
the company for their expenses in going to, attending 
at, and returning from their different meetings as 
follows, viz : — 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 89 

Gen. Washington, Thirty-four pounds, ten shillings. 

Thomas Johnston, Esq., Thirty pounds. 

Thomas Sim Lee, Esq., Twenty-two pounds, ten shillings. 

John Fitzgerald, Esq., Thirty-four pounds, ten shillings. 

George Gilpin, Esq., Thirty-four pounds, ten shillings. 

It being in proportion to the time each has attended, 
at thirty shillings Virginia currency per day." 

The report was unanimously adopted, and in testi- 
mony of the high sense the company entertained of the 
faithful and attentive manner the President, Directors 
and Treasurer discharged their respective trusts, 
James Keith, Charles Simms, and David Stuart, Esqs., 
were appointed to return their thanks to those gentle- 
men. 

The time allowed by the charter for completing the 
navigation from the Great Falls to Fort Cumberland, 
not being sufficient, and the importance of fixing to 
it a limit with some degree of certainty, the sub- 
scribers were induced to pass a resolution requesting 
the President and Directors to make an exploration 
of that part of the river for the purpose of presenting 
the facts of the difficulties yet to be removed from the 
channel, to the legislatures of Maryland and Virginia, 
and to ask for an extension of a definite period to 
consummate (K) the enterprise. 

The stockholders also acted on a petition of Michael 
Bowman, who superintended the blasting of rocks. 
He had received a serious injury by the accidental 
explosion of gunpowder at the Shenandoah Falls 



90 WASHINGTON: 

while in the service of the company. The justice 
and liberality of the company is sufficiently exemplified 
by the fact that relief was granted him, that the 
President and Directors were not limited in the 
relief to be afforded by a specific amount, but were 
authorized and requested to allow him such support 
from time to time as to them should seem reasonable. 

This is the first and only circumstance of the kind 
which is recorded in the proceedings of the Board, 
and as it illustrates the humanity and the generosity 
of the proprietors, is of sufficient interest to be given 
in the compilation. 

A few days after the adjournment, all the arrange- 
ments were made for the proposed exploration of the 
river. The best boats were selected and put in good 
condition. Provisions, compass, sounding and mea- 
suring lines, and such other articles as were necessary 
to complete equipage were all provided, and on the 
morning of the 20tli day of August, the convoy left 
the shores upward bound. A more beautiful morning 
could not have been chosen. Favored with a pleasant 
breeze and a cloudless sky, the voyageurs took their 
departure with anticipations of pleasure in the 
performance of an important service, and which were 
fully realized. The broad surface of the river, the 
bold and broken banks, the headlands and promon- 
tories, the falls and rapids, the wild and picturesque 
scenery which characterizes the bounding shores of 
the Potomac, were all calculated earnestly to engage 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 91 

the attention of the party, and materially to abate the 
severity of the service they had undertaken to perform. 
A very minute examination of the river was made, 
and they traced out, as they ascended the stream, and 
as far as it was practicable, the line of the channel 
remaining to be improved. After an absence of four 
days in this arduous and laborious duty, the party 
returned to the Great Falls. Before the members 
separated, they unanimously agreed to present the 
claims of the company to the legislatures of Maryland 
and Virginia for an extension of time to complete the 
navigation of the river, and agreed upon the following 
petition to be presented upon the opening of the 
sessions : — 

To the Honorable the General Assemblies 

of Virginia and Maryland. 

The humble petition of the President and Directors of the 
Potomac Company in behalf of the said company, showeth : 

That in and by the acts of the said assemblies for opening and 
extending the navigation of the Potomac River, it is provided and 
enacted, that in case the said company should not begin the work 
mentioned in the said act, within one year after the company 
should be formed, or if the navigation should not be made and 
improved between the Great Falls and Fort Cumberland in the 
manner therein before mentioned, within three years after the said 
company should be formed, then the said company should not be 
entitled to any benefit, privileges, or advantage under the said act. 

That your petitioners conceive the intention of the legislatures 
in limiting the company to three years after the formation, for 
making and improving the navigation between the Great Falls and 



92 WASHINGTON: 

Fort Cumberland, was to prevent any unnecessary delay in exe- 
cuting the work, and on the presumption that the time allowed 
was fully sufficient to effect it in the common and usual course of 
the seasons. 

That the said company have entered on the work within the 
time limited, and prosecuted the same at great expense with unre- 
mitted assiduity, with such prospects of success that they hoped 
and expected to complete the whole navigation within the ten 
years allowed, but that the latter part of the summer and the fall 
of seventeen hundred and eighty-five were so unfavorable, that the 
hands employed in the bed of the river above the Great Falls were 
often drove from their work by rises of the water, and frequently 
kept out for several days together, so that the work could not 
proceed as was wished and expected. And the last summer hath 
proved so very rainy that the water has constantly kept up too 
high to permit any work to be done in the bed of the river, though 
the company retained a considerable number of men in their service 
through the whole of the last winter, \\ath the view of being pre- 
pared to enter on the work about the twentieth day of June, the 
time that the water is generally low enough for such purpose, and 
thus by extraordinary exertion to retrieve the unavoidable loss of 
time in the preceding year. 

Your petitioners therefore in behalf of -.the said company pray, 
"that acts of the said Assemblies may be passed whereby the said 
company may be indulged with time till the seventeenth day of 
November, seventeen hundred and ninety, or such other time as to 
your houses shalj seem reasonable for making and improving the 
navigation between the Great Falls and Fort Cumberland." 



This petition was submitted to the consideration of 
the meeting of the Board on the 2d day of October by 
the President of the company. It was unanimously 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 93 

adopted, and a committee was selected to proceed to 
Richmond and to Annapolis to present it to the 
legislatures as soon as they should be in session. 

Upon its presentation by the committee, the 
General Assemblies promptly acted upon it, and 
authorized the extension of the time prayed for 
opening and extending the navigation of the Potomac. 
The preamble to this supplemental act declares, 
that " Whereas the two last summers have been so 
unfavorable to the work of making and improving the 
navigation above the Great Falls in the Potomac 
River, that the same cannot probably be perfected 
within the three years limited and allowed by the act 
for establishing a company for opening and extending 
the navigation of the Piver Potomac," and therefore 
granted the prayer of the petitioners, allowing until 
the seventeenth day of November, 1790, to complete 
the improvement. 

The appointment of Mr. Richardson Stewart as the 
principal Assistant Superintendent, but with powers 
and a discretion conferred upon the General Superin- 
tendent, was not regarded by Mr. Pumsey with entire 
complacency and satisfaction. 

The experience and knowledge of the construction 
of machinery, with the high personal character he 
possessed, pointed out Mr. Stewart as a very suitable 
individual to be engaged in the service of the 
company. At this time the importance of the use of 
machinery to raise the large boulders imbedded in the 



^- 



94 WASHINGTON: 

channel of the river, was begmning to be estimated, 
and. no one was known better calculated to accomplish 
this purpose. 

A short time after the appointment of Mr. Stewart, 
it was evident that Mr. Rumsey was becoming dis- 
satisfied, and on several occasions evinced a disposi- 
tion to impair the confidence of the Board in his skill 
and judgment and in the management of the import- 
ant interest which was committed to his hands. A 
feeling allied to jealousy, and perhaps envy, so 
controlled him, that he retired from the service of 
the company under the plea of the incompetency, 
ignorance, and want of truth on the part of the newly 
appointed superintendent, and immediately prepared 
a list of charges against him, which he presented in 
person to the Board. 

They were read by the clerk as follows : — 



1st. The incapacity of the said manager for carrying on the 
great bnsiness of opening the River Potomac, his want of compe- 
tent knowledge in mechanics, viz : in building four machines at a 
great expense for raising stone, none of which answered the 
purpose. 

2d. The said manager's want of truth and candor in causing 
the overseers to have buried one of the said machines on the 
arrival of General Washington, that his ignorance might not come 
to the knowledge of the President and Directors, or accounting for 
the money so uselessly expended. 

3d." The fifth machine he erected was still insufficient for the 
purpose intended, and did not succeed until materially amended by 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 95 

the late manager James Rumsey, notwitlistauding he had disobeyed 
the orders of the said Rumsey before in constructing a machine for 
the above purpose, and to conceal his own misconduct had endea- 
vored to ridicule the said machine to the overseers by putting it 
up before it was finished as planned by the said Rumsey, by which 
conduct not less than sixty dollars were entirely wasted. 

4th. The said manager being unworthy of confidence by numerous 
misrepresentations to the President and Directors, especially the 
rock joining the canal (a place suificiently known to the said 
Stewart and Directors without further description here), first by 
greatly approving it, and then concealing that approbation from 

Gen. "Washington, Col. Gilpin, and Col. , and his extreme 

ignorance in intending but one wall (as he informed the late 
manager James Rumsey), which he himself had staked off on the 
inside of the canal, instead of the outside thereof, which all engineers 
will condemn. 

5th. The said manager did greatly retard the operations by 
frequently ordering the people from the works the overseers had 
put them at, declaring it was wrong, and setting them to work at 
other places without any reason therefor, especially telling one of 
the overseers who convinced him he was wrong, that it was to keep 
up his dignity. 

6th. That the said manager did greatly injure the said work, by 
introducing very improper persons as overseers, especially Owen 
Dolly, whose bad conduct even he was so ashamed of that he 
endeavored to hide it from the President and Directors by denying 
he ever acted as an overseer, thereby adding falsity to fault, and 
. Knox, who is now in Fairfax jail committed for forgery. 

1th. That the said manager was very severe, not to say cruel, to 
the servants, which was not only very detrimental to those on the 
spot, but the rumors thereof reaching the neighborhood many 
persons coming to hire at the works were deterred and returned. 
That his misconduct has obliged Leonard Jamison and Joshua 
Crow, two overseers of unexceptionable good character, to leave the 



96 WASHINGTON: 

works, and has declared that old convicts make the best overseers, as 
themselves know what it is to be whipped. 

8th. That the said manager, by declaring that officers of justice 
should not serve any process at the works, thereby encouraged the 
people under his command to depredate upon the neighboring 
inhabitants and destroy their stocks, and by his cruelty and bad 
behavior to individuals prevented necessaries being brought, 
especially his ordering a servant to spit in the face of Thomas 
Moxley, an inoffensive old man, and causing another servant to 
burn Michael Barnet with a hot iron without reason, which 
unworthy office the servant performed with such reluctance, that 
the manager, to compel it, was obliged to have recourse to blows, 
the injured person and beaten servant equally and justly complain- 
ing of such unparalleled wrongs. 

9th. That when James Rumsey, the late manager, endeavored 
to compose the differences that had arisen between the people at 
the works and the neighborhood, in his absence the said Stewart 
endeavored to keep up the animosity by blaming the neighbors to 
the late manager, and exculpating the servants before the magis- 
trates, and that upon all occasions in his power would insinuate 
against the late manager, repeating some things untrue, by con- 
cealing others, and in particular once before two of the Directors 
(wishing to saddle the late manager with the disorders which had 
happened in his absence) asserted, that he never saw a set of 
better behaved men, or men under better discipline, in his life, 
than the people were at the works on the arrival of the said 
Rumsey. 

10th. That much injury has accrued to the company and the 
work much retarded by the fears of the country people occasioned 
by the manager's connivance at or occasioning of the ill treatment 
which too many persons had received, whom business or curiosity 
had induced to visit the works, insomuch that one of the contractors 
to feed the people (Col. Dark), since the appointment of Stewart 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 97 

cannot get wagoners or stock drivers to convey the provisions to 
the works, unless be will send one of his sons to protect thera. 

(Signed) JAMES RUMSEY. 

August 4, 1786. 



A copy of these charges were placed in the hands 
of the President and Directors of the company by 
Mr. Rumsey on the 4th of September, and had been 
duly considered, and witnesses examined, and the 
Board were prepared, the 3d of October, to submit 
their opinion of the matters in controversy. All the 
members were present, and also Mr. Rumsey and Mr. 
Stewart. 

The President requested the clerk to read the 
opinion as follows : — 



The Board having heard the charges aforesaid exhibited by Mr. 
James Rumsey, and the testimony adduced in support of them, and 
having maturely considered the testimony in support of them, are 
of opinion : — 

On the 1st. Previous to the first appointment, the President and 
Directors took the measures they thought most likely to give them 
an opportunity of employing managers who had experience in 
works of the nature of that in contemplation, but as no person 
offered who had practical knowledge in such business, Mr. Rumsey 
was appointed, and continued as principal till his resignation, on 
which event the Board, under all circumstances, advanced the 
present to the place of the late manager without any endeavors on 
the part of Mr. Stewart to impress on the Board an idea of his 
7 



98 ttashington: 

competency to the work, and in general he has not fallen short of 
their expectations in its progress. The defect alleged in the four 
machines for raising stone was so easily remedied by a small 
addition, that the Board do not consider those machines as any 
evidence of Mr. Stewart's want of mechanical knowledge. 

2d. It appears to the Board that no order was given by Mr. 
Stewart to have one of the machines buried, and that the part of 
the work concealed has been since made use of, and that Mr. 
Stewart's concealment of a part of it was not from any reprehen- 
sible motive, and that on the whole of the evidence this seems to 
be a frivolous charge. 

3d. The inference in which this charge consists is unsupported. 

4th. No misrepresentations having been made to the President 
and Directors, the first part of the charge is unfounded, and no 
evidence appears to support the remaining part of it. 

5th. It does not appear to the Board that Mr. Stewart used any 
severities that the necessity of the ease did not require, and that 
Mr. Jamison and Mr. Crow having left the works should not be 
imputed to any misconduct in Mr. Stewart. 

8th. The first part of the charge is unsupported by evidence, 
but that facts within the knowledge of the Board are in contra- 
diction to it. With respect to Moxley, the evidence proves the 
order to have been given, but not executed, and that there must 
have been some misconception, as Mr. Stewart and he were on 
friendly terras and no provocation given. With respect to Barnet, 
the charge is proved, and that in this Mr. Stewart acted with an 
impropriety the Board disapproves of. 

9th. The charge of Mr. Stewart endeavoring to keep up the 
animosity between the people at the works and the neighborhood, 
is not proved. His conduct before the magistrates from the 
information of one of them, appears to this Board to be proper 
and commendable ; and the Board, nor any member of it, can 
recollect any conversation or insinuation of Mr. Stewart's, which 
had any tendency to lessen the late manager in their opinion. 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 99 

10th. That the fears of the people of the neighborhood to visit 
the works have prevented that confidence and free intercourse 
which is desirable is too true, but the Board do not believe that 
Mr, Stewart hath given just cause for those fears. The Board 
have taken every means in their power to employ laborers and 
workmen who they expected would be the most easily governed, 
but their endeavors have been ineffectual. They have been 
reduced to the necessity either to let the work stand, or of pur- 
chasing servants and hiring such as have offered, amongst whom 
many have proved to be of very bad morals and tui-bulent disposi- 
tions. And this Board are of opinion that the fears of the country 
people have originated in the ill conduct of the people necessarily 
employed in the works, and have been widened by exaggeration. 
The Board are of opinion that Mr. Stewart, from several instances 
of his conduct, hath exerted himself to preserve regularity and 
order, and have a confidence that his conduct and that of all 
the company's officers will be calculated to this end, without which 
they can as little merit and expect the approbation of this Board. 



During the past few months the number of hands 
in the service of the company was materially- 
diminished, and as the present season was most 
favorable to the prosecution of the work, the Secretary 
was authorized to advertise for negroes to be hired on 
the same terms they were engaged the preceding year. 

The managers were also directed to retain such of 
the hands as they might judge necessary, at monthly 
wages between the 12th day of November and the 
12th day of April next, not exceeding 325. sterling 
per month for common hands, nor 405. sterling for 
prime hands, with the usual ration except spirits, and 



100 WASHINGTON: 

with such reasonable allowance of spirits as the 
manager may from time to time think proper, but 
shall not suffer rations to be issued to those who do 
not work, except in cases of necessity, and then to be 
charged to and deducted from the pay of the persons 
who receive them, unless in the few instances where 
the circumstances and merit of the man may claim 
such assistance, of which the Board expect account 
or information from time to time, to determine 
whether the provisions and money of the company 
are frugally expended. 

Accounts amounting to £582 12s. 6d. were pre- 
sented and passed at this meeting of the Board. 

It was for some time apparent that unless extraor- 
dinary measures were adopted to compel subscribers 
to pay the dividends that were called in by resolution 
of the President and Board, the funds in the treasury 
would be insufficient to the employment of the force 
that was necessary to secure the earliest completion 
of the enterprise. The delinquent stockholders were 
several times addressed on the subject, and, with 
few exceptions, failed compliance with the demands 
of the company. Five months had nearly elapsed, 
and the funds were gradually diminishing, and without 
the prospect of replenishment. In consequence of 
this condition of the pecuniary affairs of the company, 
the President deemed it his duty to call a special 
meeting of the Board. 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 101 

This meeting was held at Alexandria on Wednes- 
day, the 3d day of January, 1787. 

Present, George Washington, President. 

John Fitzgerald, Esq., George Gilpin, Esq., 
Directors. 

The President then briefly stated the circumstances 
which induced him to call this meeting, the funds in 
the treasury were nearly exhausted, and it was a 
matter of much importance to the success of the 
enterprise, to continue the present force in the service 
of the company, but which could not be done, unless 
some measures were adopted to compel delinquent 
stockholders to pay the assessments upon the shares, 
in obedience to the Resolution of the Board in August 
last. He therefore earnestly invited deliberation and 
efficient action on the subject. After some conversa- 
tion, and the interchange of views, it was ordered 
that a notification be directed to the subscribers in 
the words following, viz : — 

By the President and Directors 

OF the Potomac Company: 

Notice is hereby given to such of the subscribers for shares in 
the company, as are delinquents in making the payments heretofore 
called for by the Board, that unless the payment first called for, of 5 
per cent., and the second, of 2^ per cent., on each share, are made 
to the Treasurer by the first of March next, the third, of 10 per 
cent, by the first of April next, and the fourth, of 10 per cent., by 
the first of May next, they will proceed to make immediate sale of 
the shares, agreeably to law. And for the information of such 



102 WASHINGTON: 

persons as have not made themselves acquainted with the directions 
of the law in this case, the Board think proper to inform them 
that if such sale does not produce the full sum ordered and directed 
to be advanced, as aforesaid, with the incidental charges, the said 
President and Directors, or a majority of them, may, in the name 
of the company, sue for, and recover the balance, by action of 
debtor on the case, and the said purchaser or purchasers shall be 
subject to the same rules and regulations as if the said sale and 
conveyance had been made by the original proprietor. And it is 
expected that those who have it in their power, will make their 
payments as early as possible, that the Board may be enabled to 
proceed in the work with new vigor. 

By order of the Board, 

(Signed) J. POTTS, Jr., 

Secretary. 



This notice did not produce the effect desired or 
expected; a few of the proprietors paid into the 
hands of the Treasiu'er the first and second dividends 
within the time specified, but a large majority 
continued delinquent; and on the 3d day of April, 
1787, the following advertisement was ordered to be 
published : — 

By the President and Directors 

OF THE Potomac Company : 

Notice is hereby given, that in the pursuance of the power and 
authority vested in them by the act for opening and extending 
the navigation of the Potomac River, forty-six shares in the said 
company will be sold at auction, at the court-house, in Alexandria, 
in the State of Virginia, on Monday the fourteenth day of May 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 103 

next, at 11 o'clock in the forenoon, and nine shares, in the said 
company, will be sold at Shuter's tavern, in Georgetown, in the 
State of Maryland, on Monday the twenty-first day of May next, 
at 11 o'clock in the forenoon, they being the shares of such of the 
proprietors as are delinquents in making the first and second 
payments on their respective shares which have been heretofore 
called for by the Board. 

By order of the Board, 

J. POTTS, Jr., 

Secretary. 



Upon the day of sale, the Directors proceeded to 
the court-house, in Alexandria, to give such informa- 
tion to bidders, in relation to the stock to be offered, 
as they might desire. 

The novelty of the occasion drew thither a number 
of persons. The auctioneer was unsuccessful ; no bids 
were made, and the Directors present suspended the 
proceedings, and the following notice was directed to 
be published : — 

By the PRESn)ENT AND DIRECTORS 

OF THE Potomac Company : 

Notice is hereby given that in pursuance of the power and 
authority vested in them by the act for opening and extending the 
navigation of the Potomac River, all the shares in the company on 
which the requisitions heretofore made by the Board have not 
been paid will be offered for sale at auction ; such of them as were 
subscribed for in the State of Virginia, at the court-house in 
Alexandria, on Tuesday the 26th day of June next, between the 



104 ttashington: 

hours of eleven and twelve ; and such of them as were subscribed 
for in Maryland, at Shuter's tavern, in Georgetown, on the day 
folio wing;. 



On the day specified in the above notice, the shares 
in the company were ofi'ered for sale at Georgetown, 
and was attended with the same result as that 
previously, at Alexandria. No bids were made, but 
many of the delinquent stockholders having made 
payment of their arrearages, and others having given 
assurances of paying within a short time, the Board 
deemed it advisable to indulge the delinquent 
proprietors of shares until the 6th day of August 
next; and gave public notice that if the several 
payments heretofore called for, shall not have been 
made by the day stated, the shares will positiveli/ be 
sold. 

The 6th of August being the day appointed by law 
for holding the general meeting, all the shareholders 
were earnestly requested to attend, either in person 
or by proxy, in order that some efficient measures be 
adopted, to place the affairs of the company in a 
condition to prosecute the work with energy and 
force. 

It was also ordered that the further sum of 6 per 
cent, be paid on each share on or before the fifteenth 
day of August next, and the Secretary to give an 
order on the Treasurer for £300 sterling in favor of 
Col. Dark in account. 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 105 

On the day appointed for holding the general meet- 
ing at Georgetown and for disposing of the shares 
of the members deHnquent in making the payments, 
called for by previous orders of the Board, there 
being but a few of the proprietors in attendance, the 
business intended to be brought before it was 
postponed to the 22d day of October, to which day 
the annual election was also deferred. 

The general meeting was held in pursuance to the 
last adjournment, and was organized by the appoint- 
ment of Daniel Carroll, Esq., Chairman, and John 
Potts, Jr., Esq., acting as Clerk. 

A list of members present being taken, and also of 
the proxies, it appeared that one hundred and forty- 
four shares were represented. 

The meeting then proceeded to the election of 
President and Directors for the ensuing year. On 
counting the ballots, it was determined that the 
following named gentlemen were unanimously 
elected : — 

General George Washington, Fresident. 

Thos. Johnston, Thos. S. Lee, John Fitzgerald, 
George Gilpin, Esqrs., Directors. 

It was then resolved that a committee be appointed 
to receive and examine the report and proceedings of 
the President and Directors for the last year, to 
consist of six members, three of whom to be a 
quorum, to act and make a report of the same to the 
next general meeting. Wm. Herbert, Wm. Hunter 



106 WASHINGTON: 

Jr., Josiah Wasson, Saml. Davidson, Bernard O'Neale, 
and Wm. Deakins, Jr., were accordingly appointed. 

It was also resolved that the President and 
Directors be requested to apply to the Legislatures of 
Virginia and Maryland to authorize them to recover 
in a summary manner the sums of money called for 
from time to time, from such of the proprietors as are 
delinquent in making their payments. 

The funds of the company were rapidly diminishing. 
For some time extraordinary drafts were made upon 
the treasury, on account of the increased number of 
hands employed at the Great Falls, and in the 
construction of boats and the machinery for raising 
rocks from the bed of the river. The efforts of the 
oiScers to induce the stockholders yet delinquent in 
the payment of their arrearages, to make remittances, 
were so far unavailing, and the Board found it 
necessary at its next meeting to anticipate by a 
specified time the completion of suificient part of the 
navigation to give encouragement to the proprietors, 
and insure remittances to the Treasurer. A variety 
of causes had operated to check the progress of the 
improvement thus far, notwithstanding the unceasing 
efforts of the President and Directors of the company. 
Many of the difficulties that were encountered were 
unavoidable, and could only be overcome by a patient 
forbearance, a steady perseverance, and a continued 
confidence in the final success of the enterprise. 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 107 

The President called a meeting of the Board at the 
mouth of the Shenandoah, on 2d day of June, 1788. 
Present : Gen. George Washington, President. 
Thos. S. Lee, George Gilpin, Thos. Johnston, 
Directors. 

In consequence of the removal of Mr. Potts, the 
Secretary of the Company, to Philadelphia, Mr. Harts- 
horne, the Treasurer, was requested to make entries of 
the proceedings of the meeting, and to act in this 
capacity until a suitable person could be chosen as 
secretary. 

Mr. Hartshorne presented a brief but interesting 
statement of the amount of funds in the treasury ; this 
statement formed the basis upon which proceedings of 
the meeting were founded. 

After much conversation and the interchange of 
views, it was unanimously admitted that the current 
expenses of the organization might be lessened with- 
out jeopardizing the progress of the work, or the 
assurance to the stockholders that, by the approaching 
season, the navigation Avould be so far perfected as to 
permit the passage of loaded boats from the reach 
above the Seneca Falls to tide-water. It was also 
determined that as soon as the state of the water was 
sufficiently low in July to work to advantage in the 
channel of the Shenandoah Falls, the number of hands 
would be augmented at that point to remove its 
obstructions as speedily as possible. 

With these encouraging proceedings, the Board 



108 WASHINGTON: 

cherished the hope of receiving early and efficient 
pecuniary relief from the proprietors, and which would 
enable them to do more than they had promised to 
them with the means in their possession. 

The first step towards abridging the expenses of 
the company was the reduction of the number of 
managers to one for the entire line, and specially 
fixing his salary — and to allow no extra or contingent 
accounts to any officer of the company. The principal 
manager was allowed £25, in addition to his annual 
salary, per year in future, to indemnify him for the 
expenses he may incur by the visits of the President 
and Directors, and strangers travelling, and other 
personal expenses. 

Mr. E-ichardson Stewart, who had been in the 
employment of the company as manager since March, 
1786, was removed for reasons relative to the interest 
of the company, and the assistant, Mr. James Smith, 
was appointed principal manager in his place. 

For some time past the conduct of Mr. Stewart had 
created dissatisfaction among the subordinate officers 
of the company on the river, and sundry charges of a 
serious nature were brought against him, which were 
submitted to the Board to be investigated. Mr. 
Stewart's absence prevented the examination then 
taking place, and the matter was postponed with the 
verbal understanding that in the event of the charges 
not being withdra^vn, they would, upon application, be 
called up at a future day. 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 109 

In tlie mean time, however, the President and 
Board addressed the following letter to Mr. Stewart: — 

Shenandoah, June 2, 1788. 
Mr. Richardson Stewart : 

We met to day by appointment to hear the charges against you, 
but could not with propriety go into an examination of witnesses 
in your absence, which, however to be regretted, we believe involun- 
tary. On a general view of the situation of the company's affairs, 
being of opinion that the present fund or prospects will not warrant 
our continuing two managers, we have come to the inclosed 
resolution. It is with reluctance we found ourselves under the 
necessity to make arrangements which, at this point of time, may 
possibly be thought, by your enemies, to be occasioned by the 
charges against you, but it has proceeded solely from our duty 
and inclination to promote the company's interest, without being 
influenced in any degree by facts alleged and not examined into. 
The preference given to Mr. Smith is on different principles, and 
we expect cannot surprise you or hurt your feelings. We request 
on the expiration of your present year, you will deliver up the 
property of the company under your care into his hands. 
We are, sir, 

Your very humble servants, 

G. W. 

T. J. 

T. L. 

G. 

Mr. Stewart not being present, but, as the Board have reason to 
believe, necessarily absent, attending a law suit, the President and 
Directors decline going into an examination of witnesses in 
support of the charges exhibited against him. 

And it is also ordered, that no overseer be retained in the 
company's service at higher wages than four pounds per month. 



110 WASHINGTON: 

The subject of replenishing the funds in the 
treasury still pressed itself upon the attention of the 
Board ; and it was decided that a communication be 
addressed to every delinquent proprietor, to pay all 
the arrearages on his stock ; and also to inclose 
therewith copies of all notices of previous and existing 
delinquencies heretofore published, with the following 
explicit order: — 



Therefore, it is ordered that each and every stockliolder or 
proprietor of any share or shares in the said company, pay to Mr. 
Hartshorne, Treasurer of said company, all such sums of money as 
now remain due from them respectively, on account of the fore- 
going orders, or any of them, on or before the 1st day of October 
next. 

Geo, Washington, P. 
Geo. Gilpin, 
John Fitzgerald. 



The next annual meeting of the stockholders was 
held in Alexandria, on the ith day of August, 1788, 
and was organized by appointing Philip Eichard 
Fendall, Esq., Chairman, and William Hartshorne, 
Esq., Secretary. 

The report of the President and Directors for the 
preceding year was presented and read; and from 
which it appeared that in consequence of the unusual 
height of the water in the river, during the past 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. Ill 

spring and summer, the progress of the improvement 
was greatly retarded, but hopes were expressed that 
an ordinary favorable season would secure the removal 
of the obstacles in the channel of navigation from 
the Great Falls to Cumberland, sufficiently, by the 
1st of November ensuing, to permit loaded boats to 
run between these points. 

It also appeared that the several sums of money 
paid into the treasury since the last meeting of the 
company amounted to £2,990 2^. 2d. sterling, which 
being added to the amount previously paid, made an 
aggregate of £13,719 I85. 8^. sterling. 

A committee, composed of Col. Hooe, Col. John 
Allison, and Mr. William Lowry, was appointed by 
the Chairman, to examine the accounts of the 
Treasurer. This examination having been made, the 
committee reported that the accounts were fairly 
stated, and exhibited a balance in hand of £169 
IO5. 6c?. Virginia currency. 

Although General Washington earnestly desired 
to withdraw from the position he had occupied in the 
Potomac Company from the day of its organization, 
the stockholders were unwilling to permit him to 
retire from the Presidency and its active duties, 
without a manifestation of their regard and gratitude, 
and an expression of the value of his services, and 
of their appreciation of the zeal and ability he had 
devoted to their interests. 

This was the memorable year preceding the change 



112 WASHINGTON: 

of the government from a confederation to a consti- 
tutional form. The subject had already, to a very 
great extent, excited the public attention, but it was 
not a question " Whom shall we choose as the first 
President of the United States ,^" 

For the Chief Magistrate of the nation, all eyes 
were directed to the illustrious Washington. He 
had led the country in triumph through the struggles 
of the revolutionary war, secured to it the blessings 
of civil and religious liberty, and had deeply implanted 
himself in the hearts of the American people by his 
own disinterested example in the holy cause of 
freedom, a love of country, and an uncontrollable 
repugnance to tyranny and oppression. And every 
American bosom, overflowing with gratitude for his 
patriotic services, and unspotted purity of character, 
was ready with one outburst of acclamation to place 
him in the chair of the Chief Executive of the nation. 

With this unanimity of national sentiment, the 
Directors and proprietors of the Potomac Company 
cordially united, however painful would be the 
separation of their official relation to the beloved 
Washington; the public good demanded the sacrifice, 
and they were prepared to yield to its necessity with 
becoming grace and resignation. 

This was the day for the annual election, and 
General Washington, having been earnestly entreated, 
yielded to the wishes of the proprietors to allow his 
name to remain as a Director of the company. Yet 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 113 

still more to distinguish the love and admiration the 
members of the company cherished for the man, who 
was " first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts 
of his countrymen," they postponed the election of 
President of the Potomac Company to the year 1789. 
This was a compliment delicately and gracefully 
bestowed; and could not have been more justly 
deserved. It was fully appreciated by General 
AVashington. 

Before the adjournment, Mr. Richardson Stewart 
presented an account, from Doctor Tiffin, of eight 
pounds, Virginia currency, for curing Patrick Todd 
of a wound he had received while in the service of 
the company, and which the treasurer was authorized 
to pay. 

And also, on motion of Col. Fitzgerald, seconded 
by Mr. Dulany, a committee was appointed, composed 
of Col. Hooe, Col. John Allison, and Mr. Lowry, 
from Virginia, and Col. Deakins, Mr. Stoddart, and 
Mr. O'Neale, of Maryland, or any one of these 
gentlemen, from each State, to examine the accounts 
of the ensuing year, and to make their report to the 
next annual meeting, which was ordered to be held 
at Georgetown, on the 3d day of August, 1789. 

The miscellaneous business before the company 
having been concluded, the chairman notified the 
proprietors present, and the proxies, that this was 
the day specified by the charter, for holding the 
annual election for President and Directors, and 

8 



114 WASHINGTON: 

requested them to prepare their ballots ; which being 
cast and counted, the following named gentlemen 
were found to be unanimously elected: General 
Washington, Thomas Sim Lee, John Fitzgerald, and 
George Gilpin, Esqrs. 

For cause not stated in the record of the 
proceedings of the proprietors, or of the Directors, 
no meetings were held previous to the annual 
appointment for the 3d day of March, 1789. 

On this day, members of the company and proxies, 
amounting to a representation of one hundred and 
eight shares, attended at Georgetown — a sufficient 
number for the transaction of business. 

Robert Peter, Esq., was unanimously appointed 
Chairman of the meeting. 

A committee, as usual, was appointed to examine 
the accounts of the Treasurer, and report thereon. 
The Chairman appointed Robert T. Hooe, George 
Digges, and Marisham Waring. 

The meeting then proceeded to the election of a 
President and Directors. The following gentlemen 
were chosen: — 

Thomas Johnston, President. 

George Gilpin, John Fitzgerald, Thos. S. Lee, 
NoTLEY Young, Directors. 

After the retirement of General Washington from 
the Presidency of the company in 1788, the zeal and 
energies of many of its proprietors greatly relaxed, 
and discouragements ensued. The original cost of 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 115 

tlie improvement, and the time specified for its 
completion, both failing to be realized, it was for 
some time doubtful whether the enterprise would not 
be entirely abandoned. 

The result, however, of discussions on this subject, 
was favorable to the prosecution of the improvement. 
The original estimate of the engineers and mechanics 
that were selected to make the surveys and calculate 
the cost of the improvement, the boats, machinery, 
&c., was $250,000, and three years was allowed as 
the time for its expenditure, and for the completion 
of the navigation. 

But long before the expiration of the time specified 
by the charter, it was evident, from the exhausted 
condition of the finances, and the little progress that 
was made in the work, that more money and time 
would be required. Applications were accordingly 
presented to the Legislatures of Virginia and Mary- 
land for an extension of three years beyond the 
existing term. The extension was obtained, yet was 
still insufficient. 

In looking over the record of the proceedings of 
the General Assemblies of Virginia and Maryland, 
relative to the company, it will be seen that ten 
amendatory acts were passed at different periods 
between the sessions of 1786, when the first appli- 
cation for an extension was granted, and the year 
1820. 

Although insufficient, these repeated applications 



116 WASHINGTON: 

to the legislatures, and the readiness with which they 
were granted, evince the continued and unabated 
confidence that was entertained in its final success, 
and the accompHshment of the earnest hopes and 
expectations of the proprietors. 

By this time, however, the successful prosecution 
of the construction of the Great Erie Canal in the 
State of New York, attracted attention to an extra- 
ordinary degree. That great work, undertaken by a 
State, unaided by the general government, was well 
calculated to attract and excite the admiration and 
astonishment of the country. Many proprietors of 
the Potomac Company at length despairing of 
accomplishing the purpose of the charter, '''•the 
improvement of the navigation of the Potomac River, 
from tide-water to the highest point practicable, and a 
highway across the portage to the waters of the Ohio^^ 
changed their views as to this particular plan, and 
with the example of a continuous canal of 365 
miles in length being undertaken by a sister State, 
to encourage them, they applied to the General 
Assembly of Virginia to authorize the Board of 
Public Works to appoint an engineer " to examine 
the waters of the Potomac above the upper line of the 
District of Columbia, and to explore the country 
between the Potomac and Ohio, on the one side, 
and the Potomac and Rappahannock on the other, 
with a view to ascertain and report upon the prac- 



THE POTOMAC COMPANY. 117 

ticability of affording a communication by canal 
between these three rivers." 

Thus, after a protracted existence of thirty-six 
years, and an expenditure of $729,380, in the prose- 
cution of the enterprise of the Potomac Company, 
it was determined to relinquish the original plan 
of improvement, and adopt another of a character 
supposed to be more feasible. 

The Board of Public Works responded favorably 
to the resolution of the General Assembly, and 
commissioners were appointed, the examinations 
made, and their report was communicated by the 
Governor to the General Assembly. 
""The report affirms the practicability of the con- 
( struction of a continuous canal, and upon this in- 
teresting fact being communicated, the Legislatures 
of Virginia and Maryland concurrently appointed 
a joint commission to examine the affairs of the 
Potomac Company, the state of the navigation of th-e 
River Potomac, its susceptibility of improvement, and 
to make report whether the said company had com- 
plied with its charter granted by the two States, and 
its ability to comply within a reasonable time ; and 
whether any, or what aid should be given to the said 
company, and what would be the best means of 
effecting an improvement in the navigation of the 
said river. 

In July, 1822, the commission entered upon the 
discharge of its duties, and after a very laborious 



118 WASHINGTON, 

investigation of its affairs, reported, in effect, " that 
the affairs of the Potomac Company had failed to 
comply with the terms and conditions of the charter ; 
that there was no reasonable ground to expect that 
they would be able to effect the objects of their 
incorporation ; that they had not only expended 
their capital stock and the tolls received, with the 
exception of a small dividend of five dollars and fifty 
cents on each share declared in 1802, but had 
incurred a heavy debt which their resources would 
never enable them to discharge ; that the floods and 
freshets nevertheless gave the only navigation that 
was enjoyed ; that the whole time when produce and 
goods could be stream borne on the Potomac in the 
course of an entire year, did not exceed forty-five 
days ; that it would be imprudent and inexpedient 
to give further aid to the Potomac Company." 

Thus terminated the existence of this time honored 
enterprise, and from its termination originated The 
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company. 



PART III. 



When General Washington divested himself of 
the cares and responsibilities of the command of 
the army, and retired from the public service, he 
engaged extensively in correspondence with some of 
the most distinguished men who had shared with 
him the toils and perils of the war, on the several 
subjects of national concern, and which the successful 
termination of the devolution naturally produced. 
These subjects were canvassed with the greatest 
candor and frankness ; and all his letters breathe with 
the most fervent love for the principles of good govern- 
ment, and the union of the States. His sagacious 
and well-balanced mind, comprehending, as it were, 
by intuition, the difficulties that might arise in the pro- 
gress of the confederacy, and in forming a more perfect 
union, failed not to appreciate the importance of the 
establishment of a system of internal improvement. 
He regarded it as the most valuable auxiliary to the 
political bonds which connected together the integral 



120 WASHINGTON: 

and extreme parts of the whole country, and in view 
of this object he contemplated the consummation of 
the favorite project of his early years, with more than 
ordinary interest. 

Not long after his retirement, he renewed, with 
unabated zeal and earnestness, the Potomac enterprise, 
a project, though unaccomplished, which unquestion- 
ably was the basis and introduction of that important 
measure of national policy subsequently adopted, and 
styled the system of internal improvement, and from 
which the trade and business of the country derived 
incalculable benefits ; and to which the West particu- 
larly is indebted for its rapid growth in population 
and commercial prosperity. 

Although the extracts from his private correspond- 
ence which follow have not an exclusive reference to 
the single project which forms the basis of this compi- 
lation, they are deemed essential to the completeness 
of its monographic character, and add vastly to its 
interest. 

One of the first letters after his return to Mount 
Vernon was addressed to Marquis Lafayette, dated 
1st of Feb. 1784. The style and language of this 
letter are characteristic of the heart and mind of the 
" Father of his Country," and form an appropriate 
introduction to this part of the compilation. It is 
therefore given nearly entire. 



AFTER THE REVOLUTION. 121 

At length, my dear Marquis, I am become a private citizen on 
the banlis of the Potomac, and under the shadow of ray own vine 
and fig-tree, far from the bustle of a camp and the busy scenes of 
a public life, I am solacing myself with these tranquil enjoyments of 
which the soldier who is ever in pursuit of fame ; the statesman 
whose watchful days and sleepless nights are spent in devising 
schemes to promote the welfare of his own, perhaps the ruin of 
other countries, as if the globe was insufficient for us all ; and the 
courtier, who is always watching the countenance of his prince, in 
hopes of catching a gracious smile, can have very little conception. 
I have not only retired from all public employments, but I am 
retired within myself, and shall be able to view the solitary walk, 
and tread the paths of private life with a heart-felt satisfaction. 
Envious of none, I am determined to be pleased with all. And 
this, my dear friend, being the order for my march, I will move 
gently down the stream of life, until I sleep with my fathers. 



The following extracts of two letters are equally 
characteristic. The first letter is addressed to Major 
General Knox, and dated the 20th February 1784. 

I am just beginning to experience that ease and freedom from 
public cares, which, however desirable, takes some time to realize ; 
for, strange as it may seem, it is nevertheless true, that it was not 
till lately I could get the better of my usual custom of ruminating 
as soon as I waked in the morning on the business of the ensuing 
day ; and of my surprise at finding, after revolving many things in 
my mind, that I was no longer a public man, nor had anything to 
do with public transactions. 

I feel now, however, as I conceive a wearied traveller must do, 
after treading many a painful step with a heavy burthen on his 



122 WASHINGTON: 

shoulders, is eased of the latter, having reached the haveu to which 
all the former were directed, and from his house-top is looking 
back, and tracing with an eager eye the meanders by which he 
escaped the quicksands and mires which lay in his way; and into 
which none but the all-powerful guide and dispenser of human 
events could have prevented his falling. 



The other is an extract of a letter to the Mar- 
chioness De Lafayette, dated April 4th, 1784. 

Freed from the clangor of arms and the bustle of a camp, from 
the cares of public employment and the responsibilities of office, I 
am now enjoying domestic ease under the shadow of my own vine 
and my own fig-tree; and in a small villa, with the implements of 
husbandry and lambkins around me, I expect to glide gently down 
the stream of life, till I am entombed in the mansion of my fathers. 



Shortly after his return from his tour to the West, 
in the autumn of 1784, which was principally under- 
taken to possess himself of a personal knowledge of 
the character of the country lying between the head- 
waters of the Potomac and the tributaries of the 
Ohio River, and enable him to estimate with greater 
accuracy the difficulties attending the construction of 
a public highway across the gorge of the mountain, 
he addressed a long letter to Benjamin Harrison, 
Governor of Virginia. 

This letter is dated "Mount Vernon, Oct. 10th, 



AFTER TEE REVOLUTION. 123 

1784, and contains such a scries of interesting facts, 
strengthening the propriety of his suggestion, relative 
to the importance of opening a communication between 
the East and the West, that I cannot forbear drawing 
largely from it — to abridge the extract would greatly 
impair its perspicuity and comprehensiveness, and the 
force with which the scheme is recommended. 



On my return from the western country, a few days ago, I had 
the pleasure to receive your favor of the Itth ultimo. It has 
always been my intention to pay my respects to you, before the 
chance of another early and hard winter should make a warm fire- 
side too comfortable to be relinquished. And I shall feel the 
additional pleasure in offering this tribute of friendship and respect 
to you, by having the company of the Marquis De Lafayette, when 
he shall have revisited this place from his eastern tour, now every 
day to be expected. 

I shall take the liberty now, my dear sir, to suggest a matter 
which would (if I am not too short-sighted a politician) mark your 
administration as an important era in the annals of this country, if 
it should be recommended by you and adopted by the Assembly. , 

It has long been my decided opinion, that the shortest, easiest, 
and least expensive communication with the invaluable and exten- 
sive country back of us, would be by one or both of the rivers of 
this State, which have their sources in the Appalachian Mountains. 
Nor am I singular in this opinion. Evans, in his map and 
analysis of the Middle Colonies, which, considering the early 
period at which they were given to the public, are done with 
amazing exactness ; and Hutchins, since, in his Topographical 
Description of the Western Country, a good part of which is from 



124 ^ ttashington: 

actual surveys, are decidedly of the same sentiments, as, indeed, 
are all others, who have had opportunities, and have been at the 
pains to investigate and consider the subject. 

But that this may not now stand as mere matter of opinion and 
assertion, unsupported by facts (such, at least, as the best maps 
now extant, compared with the oral testimony which my oppor- 
tunities in the course of the war have enabled me to obtain), I 
shall give you the different routes and distances from Detroit, by 
which all the trade of the northwestern parts of the united terri- 
tory must pass ; unless the Spaniards, contrary to their present 
policy, should engage part of it, or the British should attempt to 
force nature, by carrying the trade of the upper lakes by the 
Kiver Utawas, into Canada, which I scarcely think they will or 
could effect. Taking Detroit, then (which is putting ourselves in 
as unfavorable a point of view as we can well be placed in, 
because it is upon the line of the British territory), as a point by 
which, as I have already observed, all that part of the trade must 
come, it appears from the statement inclosed, that the tide-waters 
of the State are nearer to it by one hundred and sixty-eight miles, 
than those of the River St. Lawrence, or than those of the Hud- 
son at Albany, by one hundred and seventy-six miles. 

Maryland stands upon similar ground with Virginia. Penn- 
sylvania, although the Susquehanna is an unfriendly water, much 
impeded, it is said, with rocks and rapids, and nowhere communi- 
cating with those which lead to her capital, has it in contem- 
plation to open a communication between Toby's Creek, which 
empties into the Alleghany River ninety-five miles above Fort 
Pitt, and the West Branch of the Susquehanna, and to cut a 
canal between the waters of the latter and the Schuylkill ; the 
expense of which is easier to be conceived than estimated or 
described by me. A people, however, who are possessed of the 
spirit of commerce, who see, and who will pursue their advantages, 
may achieve almost anything. In the mean time, under the 
uncertainty of these undertakings, they are smoothing the roads, 



AFTER THE REVOLUTION. 125 

and paving the ways for the trade of the western worhl. That 
New York will do the same, as soon as the British garrisons are 
removed, which are at present insurmountable obstacles in their 
way, no person who knows the temper, genius, and policy of those 
people as well as I do, can harbor the smallest doubt. 

Thus much with respect to rival States. Let me now take a 
short view of our own ; and, being aware of the objections which 
are in the Avay, I will, in order to contrast them, enumerate them 
with the advantages. 

The first and principal one is the unfortunate jealousy which 
ever has, and it is to be feared ever will prevail, lest one part of 
the State should obtain an advantage over the other parts, as if 
the benefits of the trade were not diffusive and beneficial to all. 
Then follows a train of difficulties, namely, that our people are 
already heavily taxed ; that we have no money ; that the advan- 
tages of this trade are remote ; that the most direct route for it is 
through other States, over which we have no control ; that the 
routes over which we have control are as distant as either of those 
which lead to Philadelphia, Albany, or jNIontreal ; that a sufficient 
spirit of commerce does not pervade the citizens of this common- 
wealth ; and that we are, in fact, doing for others what they 
ought to do for themselves. 

Without going into the investigation of a question which has 
employed the pens of able politicians, namely, whether trade with 
foreigners is an advantage or disadvantage to a country, this State 
is a part of the confederated States, all of which have the spirit of 
it very strongly working within them, must adopt it, or submit to 
the evils arising therefrom without receiving its benefits. Com- 
mon policy, therefore, points clearly and strongly to the propriety 
of our enjoying all the advantages which nature and our local 
situation afford us ; and evinces clearly that unless the spirit 
could be totally eradicated in other States as well as in this, arid 
every man be made to become either a cultivator of the land or a 
manufacturer of such articles as are prompted by necessity, such 



126 WASHINGTON: 

stimulus should be employed as will force this spirit, by showing 
to our countrymeu the superior advantages we possess beyond 
others, and the importance of being upon an equal footing with 
our neighbors. 

If this is fair reasoning, it ought to follow as a consequence, 
that we should do our part towards opening the communication 
for the fur and peltry trade of the lakes, and for the produce of 
the country which lies within, and which will, so soon as matters 
are settled with the Indians, and the terms on which Congress 
mean to dispose of the land found to be favorable, are announced, 
be settled faster than any other ever was, or any one would 
imagine. This, then, when considered in an interested point of 
view, is alone sufficient to excite our endeavors. But in my 
opinion, there is a political consideration for so doing, which is of 
still greater importance. 

I need not remark to you, sir, that the flanks and rear of the 
United States are possessed by other powers, and formidable ones 
too ; nor how necessary it is to apply the cement of interest to 
bind all parts of the Union together by indissoluble bonds, 
especially that part of it which lies immediately west of us, with 
the Middle States. For what ties, let me ask, should we have 
upon those people ? How entirely unconnected with them shall 
we be, and what troubles may we not apprehend, if the Spaniards 
on their right, and Great Britain on their left, instead of throwing 
stumbling blocks in their way, as they now do, should hold out 
lures for their trade and alliance ? What, when they get strength, 
which will be sooner than most people conceive (from the emigra- 
tion of foreigners, who will have no particular predilection towards 
us, as well as from the removal of our own citizens), will be the 
consequence of their having formed close connections with both or 
either of those powers, in a commercial way, it needs not, in my 
opinion, the gift of prophecy to foretell. 

The Western States (I speak now from my own observation) 
stand as it were upon a pivot. The touch of a feather would 



AFTER THE EEYOLUTION. 127 

turn them any way. They have looked down the Mississippi until 
the Spaniards, very impolitically, I think, for themselves, threw 
difficulties in their way ; and they looked that way for no other 
reason than because they could glide gently down the stream, 
without considering, perhaps, the difficulties of the voyage back 
again, and the time necessary to perform it in ; and because they 
have no other means of coming to us but by long land transpor- 
tations, and unimproved roads. These causes have hitherto 
checked the industry of the present settlers ; for, except the de- 
mand for provisions, occasioned by the increase of population, 
and a little flour, which the necessities of the Spaniards compel 
them to buy, they have no incitements to labor. But smooth the 
road, and make easy the way for them, and then see what an 
influx of articles will be poured upon us ; how amazingly our 
exports will be increased by them, and how amply we shall be 
compensated for any trouble and expense we may encounter to 
eS'ect it. 

A combination of circumstances makes the present conjunction 
more favorable for Virginia than for any other State in the 
Union, to fix these matters. The jealous and untoward disposition 
of the Spaniards, on one hand, and the private views of some 
individuals, coinciding with the general policy of the court of 
Great Britain on the other, to retain as long as possible the posts 
of Detroit, Niagara, and Oswego (which, though done under the 
letter of the treaty, is certainly an infraction of the spirit of it, 
and injurious to the Union), may be improved to the greatest 
advantage by the State, if she would open the avenues to the 
trade of that country, and embrace the present moment to establish 
it. It only wants a beginning. The western inhabitants would 
do their part towards its execution. Weak as they are, they 
would meet us at least half-way, rather than be driven into the 
arms of foreigners, or be made dependent upon them ; which 
would eventually either bring on a separation of them from us, or 



128 WASHINGTON: 

a war between the United States and one or the other of those 
powers, most probably with the Spaniards. 

The preliminary steps to the attainment of this great object 
would be attended with very little expense, and might, at the 
same time that it served to attract the attention of the western 
country, and convince the wavering inhabitants of our disposition 
to connect ourselves with them, and facilitate their commerce with 
us, be a means of removing those jealousies which otherwise might 
take place among ourselves. 

These, in my opinion, are to appoint commissioners, who, from 
their situation, integrity, and abilities, can be under no suspicion 
of prejudice or predilection to one part more than to another. 
Let these commissioners make an actual survey of James River 
and the Potomac from tide-water to their respective sources ; note 
with great accuracy the kind of navigation, and the obstructions, 
the distances from place to place, through their whole extent, and 
the nearest and best portage between these waters, and the streams 
capable of improvement, which run into the Ohio ; traverse these 
in like manner to their junction with the Ohio, and with equal 
accuracy. The navigation of the Ohio being well known, they 
will have less to do in the examination of it ; but nevertheless, let 
the sources and distances be taken to the mouth of the Muskin- 
gum, and up that river (notwithstanding it is in the ceded lands) 
to the carrying place to the Cayahoga ; down the Cayahoga to 
Lake Erie ; and thence to Detroit. Let them do the same with 
Big Beaver Creek ; although part of it is in the State of Pennsyl- 
vania; and also with the Scioto. In a word, let the waters east 
and west of the Ohio, which invite our notice by their proximity 
and by the ease with which land transportation may be had be- 
tween them and the Lakes on the one side, and the Rivers Poto- 
mac and James on the other, be explored, accurately delineated, 
and a correct and connected map of the whole be presented to the 
public. These things being done, I shall be mistaken if prejudice 
does not yield to facts, jealousy to candor, and, finally, if reason 



AFTER THE REVOLUTION. 129 

and nature, thus aided, do not dictate what is right and proper to 
be done. 

In tlie meanwhile, if it should be thought that the lapse of time, 
which is necessary to effect this work, may be attended with inju- 
rious consequences, could not there be a sum of money granted 
towards opening the best, or, if it should be deemed more eligible, 
two of the nearest communications (one to the northward, and an- 
other to the southward), wath the settlements to the westward, and 
an act be passed, if there should not appear a manifest disposition 
in the Assembly to make it a public undertaking, to incorporate 
and encourage private adventurers, if any should associate and 
solicit the same, for the purpose of extending the navigation of 
the Potomac or James River ; and, in the former case, to request 
the concurrence of Maryland in the measure ? It will appear from 
my statement of the different routes (and, as far as my means of 
information have extended, I have done it with the utmost candor), 
that all the produce of the settlements about Fort Pitt can be 
brought to Alexandria by the Youghiogheny in three hundred and 
four miles, whereof only thirty-one are land transportation ; and 
by the Monongahela and Cheat Rivers in three hundred and sixty 
miles, twenty of which only are land carriage. Whereas, the com- 
mon road from Fort Pitt to Philadelphia is three hundred and 
twenty miles, all land transportation ; or four hundred and seventy- 
six miles, if the Ohio, Toby's Creek, Susquehanna and Schuylkill, 
are made use of for this purpose. How much of this is by land, I 
know not ; but, from the nature of the country, it must be very 
considerable. How much the interest and the feelings of people 
thus circumstanced would be engaged to promote it, requires no 
illustration. 

For my own part, I think it highly probable, that upon the 
strictest scrutiny, if the Falls of the Great Kenawha can be made 
navigable, or a short portage be had there, it will be found of 
equal importance and convenience to improve the navigation of 
both the James and Potomac. The latter, I am fully persuaded, 



130 WASHINGTON: 

affords the nearest communication with the Lakes ; but James 
River may be more convenient for all the settlers below the mouth 
of the Great Kenawha, and for some distance perhaps above and 
west of it ; for I have no expectation, that any part of the trade 
above the Falls of the Ohio will go down that river and the Mis- 
sissippi, much less that the returns will ever come up them ; or, 
upon trial, if it should be found that these rivers, from the before- 
mentioned Falls, will admit the descent of sea-vessels, in that case, 
and the navigation of the former becoming free, it is probable that 
both vessels and cargoes will be carried to foreign markets and 
sold ; but the returns for them will never, in the natural course of 
things, ascend the long and rapid current of that river, which, with 
the Ohio to the Falls, in their meanderings, is little, if any, short 
of two thousand miles. Upon the whole, the object in my estima- 
tion is of vast commercial and political importance. In this light 
I think they will consider it, and regret if our conduct should give 
them cause that the present favorable moment to secure so great 
a blessing for them was neglected. 

One thing more remains, which I had like to have forgotten, 
and that is, the supposed difficulty of obtaining a passage through 
the State of Pennsylvania. How an application to its legislature 
would be relished, in the first instance, I will not undertake to 
decide ; but of one thing I am almost certain, such an application 
would place that body in a very delicate situation. There are in 
the State of Pennsylvania at least one hundred thousand souls 
west of the Laurel Hill, who are groaning under the inconveni- 
ences of a long land transportation. They are wishing, indeed 
they are looking for the improvement and extension of inland 
navigation ; and, if this cannot be made easy for them to Phila- 
delphia (at any rate it must be long), they will seek a mart else- 
where ; the consequence of which would be, that the State, though 
contrary to the interests of its seaports, must submit to the loss 
of so much of its trade, or hazard not only the loss of the trade 
but the loss of the settlement also ; for an opposition on the part 



AFTER THE REVOLUTION. 131 

of government to the extension of water transportation so conso- 
nant with the essential interests of a large body of people, or any 
extraordinary impositions upon the exports or imports to or from 
another State, would ultimately bring on a separation between its 
eastern and western settlements ; towards which there is not want- 
ing a disposition at this moment in that part of it beyond the 
mountains. I consider Rumsey's discovery for working boats 
against the stream, by mechanical power principally, as not only a 
very fortunate invention for these States, in general, but as one of 
those circumstances which have combined to render the present 
time favorable above all others for fixing, if we are disposed to 
avail ourselves of them, a large portion of the trade of the western 
country in the bosom of this State irrevocably. 

Long as this letter is, I intended to have written a fuller and 
more digested one, upon this important subject; but have met 
with so many interruptions since my return home, as almost to 
have precluded my writing at all. What I now give is crude ; but 
if you are in sentiment with me, I have said enough ; if there is 
not an accordance of opinion, I have said too much ; and all I 
pray in the latter case is, that you will do me the justice to be- 
lieve my motives are pure, however erroneous my judgment may 
be in this matter, and that I am with the most perfect esteem and 
friendship, 

Sir, yours, &c. 



Not long after the memorials for the connection 
between the eastern and western sides of the 
Alleghany Mountains were presented to the Legisla- 
tures of Virginia and Maryland, General Washington 
felt it to be his duty to bring the subject, in a 
national form, before the Congress of the United 
States. Richard Henry Lee was President of that 



132 WASHINGTON: 

body. As preliminary to the adoption of any definite 
measures, looking directly to this union, by an 
internal communication, he earnestly invoked the 
wisdom and attention of Congress, to provide the 
means for an accurate survey of the western country 
between specified limits ; and upon the result of this 
survey depended a more particular recommendation 
of his object to its favor and support. His letter to 
Mr. Lee, from which the following extract is taken, 
is dated — 



Mount Veenox, December 14, 17S4. 
The Assemblies of Virginia and Maryland have now under 
consideration the extension of the inland navigation of the Rivers 
Potomac and James, and opening a communication between them 
and the western waters. They seem fully impressed with the 
political, as well as the commercial advantages, which would result 
from the accomplishment of these great objects ; and I hope will 
embrace the present moment to put them in a train for execution. 
Would it not, at the same time, be worthy of the wisdom and 
attention of Congress, to have the western waters well explored, 
the navigation of them fully ascertained, accurately laid down, and 
a complete and perfect map made of the country; at least as far 
westwardly as the Miamies, running into the Ohio and Lake Erie, 
and to see how the waters of these communicate with the River 
St. Joseph, winch empties into the Lake Michigan, and with the 
Wabash? For I cannot forbear observing that the Miami Tillage, 
in Hutchins' map, if it and the waters are laid down with accuracy, 
points to a very important post for the Union. The expense 
attending such an undertaking could not be great ; the advantages 
would be unbounded ; for sure I am, nature has made such a 



AFTER THE REVOLUTION. 133 

display of her bounties in those regions, that the more the country 
is explored the more it will rise in estimation, consequently the 
greater will the revenue be to the Union. 



The project of improving the navigation of the 
Potomac River had for some time attracted attention 
both in Virginia and Maryland ; and many of their 
most prominent citizens w^ere earnestly engaged in 
advancing the interests of the enterprise. The only 
difficulty which seemed to present itself in its 
accomplishment, was the arrangement of details, to 
render it mutually satisfactory and advantageous to 
the parties — two sovereign and independent States. 
Their respective legislatures had already sufficiently 
responded to the public sentiment, to indicate the 
character of their future action, whenever the scheme 
would be formally submitted to them ; and to settle 
the preliminaries on just and equitable principles. 
General Gates and General Washington were 
requested, on the part of Virginia, to visit Annapolis 
on a mission of consultation on the subject with the 
proper authorities of Maryland. 

Immediately on their arrival in the ancient 
metropolis of Maryland, General Washington wrote 
to Marquis De Lafayette as follows : — 

I am here with General Gates, at the request of the Assembly 
of Virginia, to fix matters with the Assembly of this State, 



134 "WASHINGTON: 

respecting the extension of the inland navigation of the Potomac, 
and the communication between it and the western waters ; and I 
hope a plan will be agreed upon to the mutual satisfaction of both 
States, and to the advantage of the Union at large. 



The Legislature of Virginia manifested their 
appreciation of the great public services of General 
Washington, by the unanimous passage of an act of 
donation, vesting in him the exclusive interest in one 
hundred and fifty shares in the Potomac and James 
Rivers Navigation Companies. This act of gratitude 
expressed the universal sentiment of the people of 
the State, and placed upon these two enterprises the 
seal of confidence, not only in their practicability, 
but, when accomplished, as sources of revenue. 

In reply to the letter from the Governor of the 
State, gracefully declining the acceptance of the 
proffered gift. General Washington remarks: — 

It is not for me to decide by which my mind was most affected, 
upon the receipt of your letter of the 5th Inst. (January, 1185), 
surprise or gratitude. Both were greater than I have words to 
express. The attention and good wishes, which the Assembly 
have evidenced by their act for vesting in me one hundred and 
fifty shares in the navigation of the Rivers Potomac and James, 
are more than mere compliment. There is an unequivocal and 
substantial meaning annexed. But believe me, sir, notwithstanding 
this, no circumstance has happened to me since I left the walks of 
public life, which has so much embarrassed me. On the one hand, 



AFTER THE REVOLUTION. 135 

I consider tbis act, as I have already observed, as a noble and 
unequivocal proof of the good opinion, the affection, and disposi- 
tion of my country to serve me ; and I should be hurt, if, by 
declining the acceptance of it, my refusal should be construed into 
disrespect, or the smallest slight upon the generous intention of 
the country ; or it should be thought that an ostentatious display 
of disinterestedness, or public virtue, was the source of refusal. 
On the other hand, it is really my wish to have ray mind, and my 
actions, which are the result of reflection, as free and independent 
as the air ; that I may be more at liberty (in things which my 
opportunities and experience have brought me to the knowledge 
of) to express my sentiments, and, if necessary, to suggest what 
may occur to me under the fullest conviction, that, although my 
judgment may be arraigned, there may be no suspicion that sinister 
motives had the smallest influence in the suggestion. Not content, 
then, with the bare consciousness of my having, in all this 
navigation business, acted upon the clearest conviction of the 
political importance of the measure, I would wish that every 
individual who may hear that it was a favorite plan of mine, may 
know, also, that I had no other motive for promoting it, than the 
advantage of which I conceived it would be productive to the 
Union, and to this State in particular, by cementing the eastern 
and western territory together ; at the same time that it will give 
vigor and increase to our commerce, and be a convenience to our 
citizens. 

How would this matter be viewed, then, by the eye of the world, 
and what would be the opinion of it, when it comes to be related, 
that George Washington has received twenty thousand dollars and 
five thousand pounds sterling of the public money as an interest 
therein ! Would not this, in the estimation of it (if I am entitled 
to any merit for the part I have acted, and without it there is no 
foundation for the act), deprive me of the principal thing which is 
laudable in my conduct ? Would it not, in some respects, be con- 
sidered in the same light as a pension ? And would not the appre- 



136 WASHINGTON: 

hension of this make me more reluctantly offer my sentiments in 
future ? In a word, under whatever pretence, and however cus- 
tomarJ'ly these gratuitous gifts are made in other countries, should 
I not thenceforward be considered as a dependent ? one moment's 
thought of which would give me more pain than I should receive 
pleasure from the product of all the tolls, were every farthing of 
them vested in me, although I consider it as one of the most cer- 
tain and increasing estates in the country. 

I have written to you with an openness becoming our friend- 
ship. I could have said more on the subject, but I have already 
said enough to let you into the state of my mind. I wish to know 
whether the ideas I entertain occurred to, and were expressed by, 
any member in or out of the House. Upon the whole you may be 
assured, my dear sir, that my mind is not a little agitated. I want 
the best information and advice to settle it. I have no inclination, 
as I have already observed, to avail rnyself of the generosity of the 
country ; nor do I wish to appear ostentatiously disintei'ested (for 
more than probably my refusal would be ascribed to this motive) ; 
nor that the country should harbor an idea that I am disposed to 
set little value on her favors, the manner of granting which is as 
flattering as the grant is important. My present difficulties, how- 
ever, shall be no impediment to the progress of the undertaking. I 
will receive the full and frank opinions of my friends with thank- 
fulness. I shall have time enough between the sitting of the next 
Assembly to consider the tendency of the act; and in this, as in all 
other matters, will endeavor to decide for the best. 



EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO RICHARD HENRY LEE, 
PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. 

Mount Vernox, February 8, 1785. 
Since my last, I have had the honor to receive your favors of the 
26th of December and 16th of January. I have now the pleasure 



AFTER THE REVOLUTION. 137 

to inform you that the Assemblies of Virginia and Maryland 
have enacted laws, of which the inclosed is a copy. They are 
exactly similar in both States. At the same time, and at the joint 
and equal expense of the two governments, the sura of six thou- 
sand six hundred and sixty-six dollars and two-thirds is voted for 
opening and keeping in repair a road from the highest practicable 
navigation of this river to that of the River Cheat, or Mononga- 
hela, as commissioners, who are appointed to survey and lay out 
the same, shall find most convenient and beneficial to the western 
settlers ; and they have concurred in an application to the State of 
Pennsylvania for permission to open another road from Fort Cum- 
berland to the Youghlogheny, at the Three Forks, or Turkey Foot. 
A similar bill to the one inclosed is passed by our Assembly 
respecting the navigation of James River, and the communication 
between it and the waters of the Great Kenawha. And the Execu- 
tive has been authorized, by a resolve of the Assembly, to ap- 
point commissioners to examine and report the most convenient 
course for a canal between Elizabeth River and the waters of the 
Roanoke, with an estimate of the expense ; and if the last com- 
munication shall be found to require the concurrence of North 
Carolina, to make application to the legislature thereof accord- 
ingly. 



EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO DAVID HTJMPHREUS. 

Mount Vernon, July 25, 1785. 

My attention is more immediately engaged in a project, which 
I think big with great political, as well as commercial, advantages 
to the States, especially the middle ones ; it is by removing the 
obstructions and extending the inland navigation of our rivers, to 
bring the States on the Atlantic in close connection with those 
forming to the westward, by a short and easy transportation. 



138 WASHINGTON: 

Without this, I can easily conceive they will have different views, 
separate interests, and other connections, I may be singuhir in 
my ideas, but they are these : that, to open a door to, and make 
easy the way for, those settlers to the westward (who ought to 
advance regularly and compactly) before we make any stir about 
the navigation of the Mississippi, and before our settlements are 
far advanced towards that river, would be our true line of policy. 
It can, I think, be demonstrated that the produce of the western 
territory (if the navigations which are in hand succeed, of which I 
have no doubt), as low down the Ohio as the Great Keuawha, and 
I believe to the Falls, and between the ports above the lakes, may 
be brought either to the highest shipping port on the Potomac or 
James Kivers, at a less expense, with more ease, including the 
return, and in a much shorter time, than it can be carried to New 
Orleans, if the Spaniards, instead of restrictions, were to throw 
open their ports and invite our trade. But if the commerce of that 
country should embrace this channel, and connections be formed, 
experience has taught us, and there is a very recent proof with 
Great Britain, how next to impracticable it is to divert it ; and, if 
that should be the case, the Atlantic States, especially as those to 
the westward will in a great degree be filled with foreigners, will 
be no more to the present Union, except to excite perhaps very 
justly our fears, than the country of California is, which is still 
more to the westward, and belonging to another power. 



The following extract is taken from General Wash- 
ington's interesting letter to Edmund Randolph, 
dated Mount Vernon, July 30th, 1785, relative to his 
disposition of the donation from the State of Virginia. 
It is an additional evidence of the high value he 
placed upon that interest, and the importance with 



AFTER THE REVOLUTION. 139 

which he regarded the improvements to which it 
refers. 



Although it is not my intention to derive any pecuniary 
advantage from the generous vote of the Assembly of this State, in 
consequence of its gratuitous gift of shares in the navigation of 
each of the Rivers Potomac and James ; yet, as I consider these 
undertakings of vast political and commercial importance to the 
States of the Atlantic, especially to those nearest the centre of the 
Union, and adjoining the western territory, I can let no act of mine 
impede the progress of the work. I have therefore come to the 
determination to hold the shares, which the Treasurer was directed 
to subscribe for on my account, in trust for the use and benefit of 
the public ; unless I should be able to discover, before the meeting 
of the Assembly, that it would be agreeable to it to have the 
product of the tolls arising from these shares applied as a fund in 
which to establish two charily schools, one on each river, for the 
education and support of the children of the poor in this country, 
particularly the children of those men of this description, who have 
fallen in the defence of the rights and liberties of it. If the plan 
succeeds, of which I have no doubt, I am sure it will be a very 
productive and increasing fund, and the moneys thus applied will 
be a beneficial institution. 

I am aware that my non-acceptance of these shares will have 
various motives ascribed to it, among which an ostentatious display 
of disinterestedness, perhaps the charge of disrespect or slight of 
the favors of my country, may lead the van ; but under a con- 
sciousness that my conduct herein is not influenced by considera- 
tions of this nature, and that I shall act more agreeably to my own 
feelings, and more consistently with my early declarations, by 
declining to accept them, I shall not only hope for indulgence, but 
a favorable interpretation of my conduct. My friends, I persuade 
myself, will acquit me, the world, I hope, will judge charitably. 



140 WASHINGTON: 

Previous to tlie advertisements of Messrs. Cabell, Buchanan, 
and Soutball, that half the sum required by the act for opening 
and extending the navigation of James R-iver, is subscribed, and 
the 20th of next month appointed for the subscribers to meet at 
Kichmond, I take the liberty of giving you a power to act for me 
on that occasion. I would (having the accomplishment of this 
navigation much at heart) have attended in person, but the 
President and Directors of the Potomac Company, by their own 
appointment, are to commence the survey of this river in the early 
part of next month ; for which purpose I shall leave home to- 
morrow. 



EXTRACT OF A LETTER TO RICHARD HENRY LEE, 
PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. 

Mount Vernon, August 22, 1785. 

In my absence with the Directors of the Potomac navigation, to 
examine the river, and fix a plan of operations, your favor, begun 
on the 23d, and ended on the 31st of July, came to this place. I 
am sorry to hear of your late indisposition, but congratulate you 
on your recovery, hoping the re-establishment of your health may 
be of long continuance. 

It is to be hoped that our minister at the Court of London will 
bring that government to an explanation respecting the western 
posts which it still retains on the American side of the line, 
contrary to the spirit, if not to the letter of the treaty. My 
opinion from the first, and so I declared it, was, that these posts 
would be detained from us as long as they could be held under 
any pretence whatsoever. I have not changed it, though I wish for 
cause to do so, as it may become a serious matter. However 
singular the opinion may be, I cannot divest myself of it, that the 



AFTER THE REVOLUTION. 141 

navigation of the Mississippi at this time ought to be no object 
with us. On the contrary, until we have a little time allowed to 
open and make easy the way between the Atlantic States and the 
western territory, the obstructions had better remain. There is 
nothing which binds one country or one State to another but 
interest. With all this cement, the western inhabitants, who 
more than probably will be composed in a great degree of 
foreigners, can have no predilection for us, and a commercial 
connection is the only tie we can have upon them. It is clear to 
me that the trade of the lakes, and of the River Ohio, as low as the 
Great Kenawha, if not to the Falls, may be brought to the 
Atlantic ports easier and cheaper, taking the whole voyage 
together, than it can be carried to New Orleans ; but, once open 
the door to the latter before the obstructions are removed from 
the former, let commercial connections, which lead to others, be 
formed, and the habit of that trade be well established, and it will 
be found to be no easy matter to divert it ; and vice versa. When 
the settlements are stronger and more extended to the westward, 
the navigation of the Mississippi will be an object of importance, 
and we shall then be able to speak a more efficacious language, 
than policy, I think, dictates at present. 



EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO WILLIAM GRAYSON, 
MEMBER OF CONGRESS. 

Mount Veknon, Augiist 22, 1785. 
During my tour up the Potomac River, with the Directors, to 
examine and to form a plan for opening and extending the navi- 
gation of it, agreeably to the Acts of Yirginia and Maryland 
Assemblies, your favor of the 25th came to this place. 

******* 

We have got the Potomac navigation in hand. Workmen are 



142 WASHINGTON: 

employed, under the best managev and assistants we could obtain, 
at the Falls of Shenandoah and Seneca ; and I am happy to in- 
form you, that upon a critical examination of them by the 
directors, the manager, and myself, we are unanimously of opinion 
that the difficulties at these two places do not exceed the expecta- 
tions we had formed of them ; and that the navigation through 
them might be effected without the aid of locks. How far we 
may have been deceived with respect to the first, as the water, 
though low, may yet fall, I shall not decide ; but we are not mis- 
taken, I think, in our conjecture of the other. 



EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO ARTHUR ST. CLAIR. 

Mount Vernon, August 31, 1785. 
Your favor of the 21st ult., inclosing a letter written in 
behalf of the Society of the Cincinnati, in the State of Pennsyl- 
vania, on the 9th of July, in the preceding year, came to this place 
in my absence on a tour up the River Potomac. 



EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Mount Vernon, September 26, 1785. 
I am very happy to find that your sentiments respecting the 
interest the Assembly was pleased to give me in the navigation of 
the Potomac and James Rivers, coincide with my own. I never 
for a moment entertained an idea of accepting it. The difficulty 
with which my mind labored was how to refuse without giving 
offence. Ultimately I have it in contemplation to apply the 
profits arising from the tolls to some public use. In this, if I 
knew how, I would meet the wishes of the Assembly ; but if I am 



AFTER THE REVOLUTION. 143 

not able to come at these, my on'n inclination leads me to apply 
them to the establishment of two charity schools, ooe on each 
river, for the education and support of poor children, especially 
the descendants of those who have fallen in defence of their 
country. 



EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO PATRICK HENRY, 
GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA. 

Mount Vernon, October, 29, 1785. 

Your excellency having been pleased to transmit to me a copy 
of the act appropriating for my benefit certain shares in the 
companies for opening the navigation of James and Potomac 
Rivers, I take the liberty of returning to the General Assembly, 
through your hands, the profound and grateful acknowledgments 
inspired by so signal a mark of their beneficent intentions towards 
me. I beg you, sir, to assure them, that I am filled on this occa- 
sion, with every sentiment which can flow from a heart warm with 
love for my country, sensible to every token of its approbation 
and affection, and solicitous to testify in every instance a respect- 
ful submission to its wishes. 

With these sentiments in my bosom, I need not dwell on the 
anxiety I feel in being obliged, in this instance, to decline a favor 
which is rendered no less flattering by the manner in which it is 
conveyed, than it is affectionate in itself. In explaining this 
observation, I pass over a comparison of ray endeavors in the 
public service, with the many honorable testimonials of approbation 
which have already so far overrated and overpaid them, reciting 
one consideration only, which supersedes the necessity of recur- 
ring to any other. 

When I was first called to the station with which I was honored 
during the late conflict for our liberties, to the diffidence which I 



144 WASHINGTON: 

had so many reasons to feel in accepting it, I thought it my duty 
to join a firm resolution to shut my hand against every pecu- 
niary recompense. To this resolution I have invariably adhered, 
and from it, if I had the inclination, I do not feel at liberty 
now to depart. 

Whilst I repeat, therefore, my fervent acknowledgments to the 
legislature, for their very kind sentiments and intentions in my 
favor, and at the same time beg them to be persuaded that a 
remembrance of this singular proof of their goodness towards 
me will never .cease to cherish returns of the warmest affection 
and gratitude, I must pray that their act, so far as it has for its 
object my personal emolument, may not have its effect. But if it 
should please Ihe General Assembly to permit me to turn the des- 
tination of the fund vested in me, from my private emolument, to 
objects of a public nature, it will be my study in selecting these, 
to prove the sincerity of my gratitude for the honor conferred on 
me, by proposing such as may appear most subservient to the 
enlightened and patriotic views of the legislature. 



EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO HENRY LEE, IN CONGRESS, 

Mount Vernon, June 18, 1786. 
The advantages with which the inland navigation of the Rivers 
Potomac and James, are pregnant, must strike every mind that 
reasons upon the subject; but there is, I perceive, a diversity of 
sentiment respecting the benefits and the consequences which 
may flow from the free and immediate use of the Mississippi. 
My opinion of this matter has been uniformly the same, and no 
light in which I have been able to consider the subject is likely to 
change it. It is, neither to relinquish nor to push our claims to 
this navigation, but in the meanwhile to open all the communica- 
tions which nature has afforded, between the Atlantic States and 



AFTER THE REVOLUTION. 145 

the western territory, and to encourage the use of them to the 
utmost. In my judgment, it is a matter of very serious concern 
to the well-being of the former, to make it the interest of the 
latter to trade with them ; without which the ties of consanguinity, 
which are weakening every day, will soon be no bond, and we 
shall be no more, a few years hence, to the inhabitants of that 
country, than the British and Spaniards are at this day ; not so 
much, indeed, because commercial connections, it is well known, 
lead to others, and united are difficult to be broken. These must 
take place with the Spaniards, if the navigation of the Mississippi 
is opened. 

Clear I am that it would be for the interest of the western set- 
tlers as low down the Ohio as the Big Kenawha, and back to the 
lakes, to bring their produce through one of the channels I have 
named ; but the way must be cleared, and made easy and obvious 
to them, or else the ease with which people glide down the 
streams will give a different bias to their thinking and acting. 
Whenever the new States become so populous and so extended to 
the westward as really to need it, there will be no power which 
can deprive them of the use of the Mississippi. Why, then, 
should we prematurely urge a matter which is displeasing, and may 
produce disagreeable consequences, if it is our interest to let it 
sleep ? It may require some management to quiet the restless 
and impetuous spirits of Kentucky, of whose conduct I am more 
apprehensive in this business, than I am of all the opposition that 
will be given by the Spaniards. 



EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

MotTNT Vernox, August 1, 17SG. 
We have no news of importance ; and, if we had, I should 
hardly be in the way of learning it, as I divide my time between 
the superintendence of opening the navigation of our rivers, and 
attention to my private concerns. 
10 



14:6 ttashington: 



EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO BUSIIROD WASHINGTON. 

Mou^"T Vekxon, September 30, 1786. 
I was from home when your servant arrived, and found him 
in a hurry to be gone when I returned ! I have company in the 
house, and am on the eve of a journey up the river to meet the 
Directors of the Potomac Company. These things continuing 
will not allow me time to give any explicit answer to the question 
you have propounded. 



EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO RICHARD BUTLER, SUPERINTENDENT OF 
INDIAN AFFAIRS, 

MotrKf Verxox, Kovember 27, 1786. 
Your appointment gave me pleasure, as everything will do, 
which contributes to your satisfaction and emolument, because I 
have a sincere regard for you. In your leisure hours, whilst you 
remain on the Ohio in discharge of the trust reposed in you, I 
should be glad to know the real temper and designs of the western 
Indians, and the situation of affairs in that country. As I am 
anxious to learn the nature of the navigation of Beaver Creek, 
the distance, and w-hat kind of portage there is between it and 
Cayahoga, or any other nearer navigable water of Lake Erie, and 
the nature of the navigation of the latter ; and also the navigation 
of the Muskingum, the distance and sort of portage across to the 
navigable waters of Cayahoga or Sandusky, and the kind of navi- 
gation therein ; you would do me an acceptable favor to convey 
them to me, with the computed distances from the River Ohio by 
each of these routes to the lake itself. 



AFTER THE REVOLUTION. 147 



EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO RICHARD HENRY LEE. 

Philadelphia, July 19, 1787. 
I liave bad the honor to receive your favor of the 15th inst., 
and thank you for the ordinance which was inclosed in it. My 
sentiments, with respect to the navigation of the Mississippi have 
been long fixed, and are not dissimilar to those which are expressed 
in your letter. I have ever been of opinion, that the true policy 
of the Atlantic States, instead of contending prematurely for the 
free navigation of that river (which eventually, and perhaps as 
soon as it will be our true interest to obtain it, must happen), 
would be to open and improve the natural communications with 
the western country, through which the produce of it might be 
transported with convenience and ease to our markets. Till you 
get low down the Ohio, I conceive, that, considering the length of 
the voyage to New Orleans, the difficulty of the current, and the 
time necessary to j^erform it in, it would be the interest of the 
inhabitants to bring their produce to our ports ; and sure I am 
there is no other tie by which they will long form a link in the 
chain of federal union. I believe, however, from the temper in 
which these people appear to be, and from the ambitious and tur- 
bulent spirit of some of their demagogues, that it has become a 
moot-point to determine, when every circumstance which attends 
this business is brought into view, what is best to be done. The 
State of Virginia having taken the matter up with so high a hand, 
is not among the least embarrassing or disagreeable parts of the 
difficulty. 



148 WASHINGTON; 



EXTRACT FROM GENERAL WASHINGTON'S LETTER TO THOMAS 
JEFFERSON. 

MouxT Vernon, January 1, 1788. 

I have received your favor of the 14th of August, and am 
sorry that it is not in my power to give any further information 
relative to the practicability of opening a communication between 
Lake Erie and the Ohio, than you are already possessed of. I 
have made frequent inquiries since the time of your writing at 
Annapolis, but could never collect anything that was decided or 
satisfactory. I have again renewed them, and flatter myself with 
better prospects. 

The accounts generally agree as to its being a flat country be- 
tween the waters of Lake Erie and the Big Beaver, but differ very 
much with respect to the distance between their sources, their 
navigation, and the inconveniences which would attend the cutting 
of a canal between them. From the best information I have been 
able to obtain of that country, the sources of the Muskingum and 
Cayahoga approach nearer to each other than the Big Beaver ; 
but a communication through the Muskingum would be more cir- 
cuitous and difficult, having the Ohio to a greater extent to as- 
cend, unless the latter could be avoided by opening a communica- 
tion between James River and the Great Keuawha, or between the 
Little Kenawha and the west branch of the Monongahela, which 
is said to be very practicable by a short portage. As a proof of 
this, a road is now opened, or opening, under the authority, and 
at the expense of the States of Virginia and Maryland, from the 
north branch of the Potomac, commencing at the mouth of Savage 
River to Cheat River ; and continued from thence to the navigable 
waters of the Little Kenawha at the cost of the former. 

The distance between Lake Erie and the Ohio through the Big 



AFTER THE REVOLUTION. 149 

Beaver, is, however, so much less than the route through the Mus- 
kingum, that it would, in my opinion, operate very strongly in 
favor of opening a canal between the sources of the nearest water 
of the Lake and the Big Beaver, although the distance between 
them should be much greater, and the operation more difficult 
than to the Muskingum, as it is the direct line to the nearest ship- 
ping port in the Atlantic. I shall omit no opportunity of gaining 
every information relative to this important subject, and with 
pleasure communicate to you whatever may be worthy of your 
attention. 



EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO RICHARD BUTLER. 

Mount Veenon, .January 10, 1788. 
As you have had opportunities of gaining extensive knowledge 
and information respecting the western territory, its situation, 
rivers, and the face of the country, I must beg the favor of you, 
my dear sir, to resolve the following queries, either from your own 
knowledge, or certain information, as well to gratify my own 
curiosity as to enable me to satisfy several gentlemen of distinc- 
tion in other countries, who have applied to me for information 
upon the subject. 

1. What is the face of the country between the sources, or canoe 
navigation of the Cayahoga, which empties itself into Lake Erie 
and the Big Beaver, and between the Cayahoga and the Musk- 
ingum ? 

2. The distance between the waters of the Cayahoga and each 
of the two rivers above mentioned ? 

3. Would it be practicable, and not very expensive, to cut a 
canal between the Cayahoga and either of the above rivers, so as 
to open a communication between the waters of Lake Erie and the 
Ohio? 



150 WASHINGTON: 

4. Whether there is any more direct, practicable, and easy com- 
munication, than these between the waters of Lal^e Erie and those 
of the Ohio, by which the fur and peltry of the upper country can 
be transported ? 

Any information you can give me, relative to the above queries, 
from your own knowledge, will be most agreeable, but if that is 
not sufficiently accurate for you to decide upon, the best and most 
authentic accounts of others will be very acceptable. 



EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO WILLIAM IRVINE. 

Mount Vernon, February 18, 17S8. 

I have to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of the 27th ult., 
and to thank you for the information contained in it. As a com- 
munication between the waters of Lake Erie and those of the Ohio 
is a matter which promises great public utility, and as every step 
towards the investigation of it may be considered as proijQoting 
the general interest of our country, I need make no apology to you 
for any trouble that I have given upon this subject. 

I am fully sensible that no account can be sufficiently accurate to 
hazard any operations upon, without an actual survey. My object 
in wishing a solution of the queries proposed to you, was that I 
might be enabled to return answers, in some degree satisfactory, 
to several gentlemen of distinction in foreign countries, who have 
applied to rae for information on the subject, in behalf of others 
Avho wish to engage in the fur trade, and, at the same time, to 
gratify my own curiosity, and assist me in forming a judgment of 
the practicability of opening a communication, should it ever be 
seriously in contemplation. 

1. Could a channel once be opened to convey the fur and peltry 
from the lakes into the eastern country, its advantages would be so 
obvious as to induce an opinion that it would, in a short time, 



AFTER THE REYOLUTIOX. 151 

become the cliannel of conveyance for much the greater part of the 
commodities brought from thence. 

2. The trade, which has been carried on between New York 
and that quarter, is subject to great inconveniences from the length 
of the communication, number of portages, and at seasons from ice, 
yet it has, notwithstanding, been prosecuted with success. 

I shall feel myself much obliged, by any further information 
that you may find time and inclination to communicate to me on 
this head. 



EXTRACT FEOM A LETTER TO RICHARD HENDERSON. 

Mount Vernon, June 19, 1788. 

In the first place, it is a^^oint conceded, that America, under an 
efficient government, will be the most favorable country of any in 
the world for persons of industry and frugality, possessed of a 
moderate capital. It is also believed, that it will not be less 
advantageous to the happiness of the lowest class of people, on 
account of the equal distribution of property, the great plenty 
of unoccupied lands, and the facility of procuring the means of 
subsistence. The scheme of purchasing a good tract of freehold 
estate, and bringing out a number of able-bodied men, indented 
for a certain time, appears to be indisputably a national one. 

All the interior arrangements of transferring the property, and 
commencing the establishment, you are as well acquainted with 
as I can possibly be. It might be considered a point of more 
difficulty to decide upon the place which should be most proper 
for a settlement. Although I believe that emigrants from other 
countries to this, who shall be well disposed, and conduct them- 
selves properly, would be treated with equal friendship and kind- 
ness in all parts of it ; yet, in the old-settled States, land is so 
much occupied, and the value so much enhanced by the contiguous 



152 WASHINGTON: 

cultivation, that the price would, in general, be an objection. The 
land in the western country, or that on the Ohio, like all others, 
has its advantages and disadvantages. The neighborhood of the 
savages, and the difficulty of transportation, are the great objec- 
tions. The danger of the first will soon cease by the strong esta- 
blishments now taking place ; the inconveniences of the second 
will be in a great degree remedied, by opening the internal navi- 
gation. No colony in America was ever settled under such favor- 
able auspices as that which has just commenced at the Muskingum. 
Information, property, and strength will be its characteristics. I 
know many of the settlers personally, and there never were men 
better calculated to promote the welfare of such a community. 

If I was a young man, just preparing to begin the world, or if 
advanced in life, and had a family to make a provision for, I know 
of no country where I should rather fix my habitation than in some 
part of that region for which the writer of the queries seems to 
have a predilection. He might be informed that his namesake and 
distant relation, General St. Clair, is not only in high repute, but 
that he is Governor of all the territory westward of the Ohio, and 
that there is a gentleman (Mr. Joel Barlow) gone from New York 
by the last French packet, who will be in London in the course of 
this year, and, also, is authorized to dispose of a very large body 
of land in that country. 



EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Mount Vernon, August 31, 1788. 
I was very much gratified a little time ago by the receipt of 
your letter dated the 2d of May. You have my best thanks for 
the political information contained in it, as well as for the 
satisfactory account of the canal of Languedoc. It gives me great 
pleasure to be made acquainted with the particulars of that 



AFTER THE REVOLUTION. 153 

stupendous work, though I do not expect to derive any but 
specnlative advantages from it. 

When America will be able to embark in projects of such 
pecuniary extent, I know not ; probably not for very many years 
to come ; but it will be a good example, and not without its use, 
if we can carry our present undertakings happily into effect. Of 
this we have now the fairest prospect. N'otwithstanding the real 
scarcity of money, and the difficulty of collecting it, the laborers 
employed by the Potomac Company have made very great progress 
in removing the obstructions at the Shenandoah, Seneca, and 
Great Falls ; insomuch that, if this summer had not proved 
unusually rainy, and if we could have had a favorable autumn, the 
navigation might have been sufficiently opened (though not com- 
pleted) for boats to pass from Fort Cumberland to within nine 
miles of a shipping port, by the first of January next. There 
remains now no doubt of the practicability of the plan, or that, 
upon the ulterior operations being performed, they will become the 
great avenue into the western country ; a country which is now 
settling in an extraordinarily rapid manner, under uncommonly 
favorable circumstances, and which promises to afford a capacious 
asylum for the poor and persecuted of the earth. 



EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO WILLIAM IRVINE. 

Mount Verxon, 00101)61- 31, 1788. 

The letter with which you favored me, dated the Gth instant, 
inclosing a sketch of the waters near the line which separates your 
State from that of New York, came duly to hand, for which I offer 
you my acknowledgments and thanks. 

The extensive inland navigation with which this country abounds, 
and the easy communications which many of the rivers aSbrd with 
the amazing territory to the westward of us, will certainly be. 



154 TTASIIINGTOX: 

productive of infinite advantage to the Atlantic States, if the 
legislatures of those through which they pass have liberality and 
public spirit enough to improve them. For my part, I wish 
sincerely that every door to that country may be set wide open, 
that the commercial intercourse with it may be rendered as free and 
as easy as possible. This, in my judgment, is the best, if not the 
only cement that can bind those people to iis for any length of 
time ; and we shall, I think, be deficient in forethought and wisdom 
if we neglect the means to effect it. Our interest is so much in 
unison with the policy of the measure, that nothing but that ill-timed 
and misapplied parsimony, and contracted way of thinking which 
intermingles so much in all our public councils, can counteract it. 
If the Chatauque Lake, at the head of Conewango River, 
approximates Lake Erie as nearly as is laid down in the draft you 
sent me, it presents a very short portage indeed between the two, 
and an access to all those above the latter. 



EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO WILLIAM GORDON. 

MorxT Verxon, December 23, 1788. 
This much I thought it might be well to say, in apology for my 
not being able to comply with your request. Indeed, when you 
consider the domestic walks of life in which I pass my days, the 
multiplicity of private concerns in which I am involved, the 
numerous epistolary applications from different quarters, the round 
of company I have at my house, and the avocations occasioned by 
my being at the head of the company for clearing the Potomac, 
you will do me the justice to suppose that I can have few topics or 
little time for correspondences of mere friendship, ceremony, or 
speculation. 



AFTER THE REVOLUTION. 155 



EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Mount Veknon, February 13, 1789. 

A desire of encouraging whatever is useful and economical 
seems now generally to prevail. Several capital artists in different 
branches have lately arrived in the country. A factory of glass is 
established upon a large scale on Monocacy River, near Frederick- 
town, in Maryland. I am informed it will this year produce glass 
of various kinds nearly to the amount of ten thousand pounds 
value. This factory will be essentially benefited by having the 
navigation of the Potomac completely opened. But the total 
benefits of that navigation will not be confined to narrower limits 
than the extent of the whole western territory of the United States. 

You have been made acquainted, my dear sir, with my ideas of 
the practicability, importance and extent of that navigation, as 
they have been occasionally, though fully expressed, in my several 
letters to you. Notwithstanding my constant and utmost endea- 
vors to obtain precise information respecting the nearest and best 
communication between the Ohio and Lake Erie, I am not yet able 
to add anything more satisfactory to the observations which I have 
had the honor to make on that subject; but I have lately received 
a correct draft executed principally from actual surveys of the 
country between the sources of the Potomac and those navigable 
waters that fall into the Ohio. Of this I inclose you such a rough 
sketch as my avocations would permit me to make ; my principal 
object being to show, that the distance between the two waters is 
shorter, and that the means of communication are easier than I 
had hitherto represented or imagined. I need not describe what 
and how extensive the rivers are, which will be thus in a wonderful 
manner connected as soon as the Potomac shall be rendered entirely 
passable. The passage would have been opened from Fort Cum- 
berland to the Great Falls (nine miles from tide-water) before this 



156 tvashington: 

time, as I mentioned in my letter of the 31st of August last, had it 
not been for the unfavorableness of the season. In spite of that 
untoward circumstance, I have the pleasure to inform you, that two 
or three boats have actually arrived at the last-mentioned place. 

I am going on Monday next to visit the works as far as the Seneca 
Falls. Could I have delayed writing the letter until ray return 
from thence, and afterwards availed myself of the same conveyance, 
I might have been more particular in my account of the state of 
the several works, and especially of the situation of the land 
adjoining the canal at the Great Falls. Whensoever the produce 
of the parts of the country bordering on the sources of the Potomac, 
and contiguous to the long rivers that run into it (particularly the 
Shenandoah and South Branch), shall be water-borne down to tide- 
water for exportation, I conceive this place must become very 
valuable. From the conveniency of the basin a little above 
the spot where the locks are to be placed, and from the induce- 
ments which will be superadded by several fine mill-seats, I cannot 
entertain a doubt of the establishment of a town in that place. 
Indeed, mercantile people are desirous that the event should take 
place as soon as possible. Manufactures of various commodities^ 
and in iron particularly, will doubtless be carried on to advantage', 
there. The mill-seats I know have long been considered as very 
valuable ones. How far buildings erected upon them may be 
exposed to injuries from freshets or the breaking up of the ice, I 
am not competent to determine from my own knowledge; but the 
opinion of persons better acquainted with these matters than I am, 
is, that they may be rendered secure. On the commodiousness of 
Alexandria for carrying on the fur trade throughout the whole 
western country, I treated in a very minute, and I may say, almost 
voluminous manner, in my communication to you on the 30th of 
May, 178*7. Probably Georgetown and the place which I have 
just mentioned, will participate largely and happily in the great 
emoluments to be derived from that and other valuable articles, 
through the inland navigation of the upper and western country. 



AFTER THE REVOLUTION. 157 



EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO HARRY INNES. 

Mount Vernoij, March 2, 1789. 
T have been favored by the receipt of your obliging letter, dated 
the 18th of December last, just in time to send my acknowledg- 
ments by a person who is immediately returning to Kentucky. This 
circumstance prevents me from expressing so fully as I might 
otherwise have done, the sense I have of the very patriotic senti- 
ments you entertain respecting the important matter which is the 
subject of your letter. As a friend to United America, I embrace 
with extreme satisfaction the proposals you are pleased to ofiTer of 
transmitting further intelligence. For which purpose I will 
endeavor to arrange and send you a cipher by the earliest safe 
conveyance. In the mean time, I rely implicitly upon that honor 
which you have pledged, and those professions which you have 
made ; and sincerely hope, that your activity and discretion will be 
successful in developing. 



The following- extracts of a coiTesponclence between 
the Earl of Buchan, a Scotch nobleman, eminent for 
his learning, his Christian virtues, and the benevolence 
of his heart, and General Washington, form an appro- 
priate and graceful conclusion to the Third Part of 
this compilation. 

Dkybprg Abbet, June 28, 1791. 
Sir: I had the honor to receive your Excellency's letter, relating 
to the advertisement of Dr. Anderson's periodical publication, in 
the Gazette of the United States ; which attention to my recom- 



158 WASHINGTON: 

mendation, I feel very sensibly, and return you my grateful 

1 
acknowledgments. 

In the 21st No. of that Literary Miscellany, I inserted a 
monetary paper, respecting America, which 1 flatter myself may, 
if attended to on the other side of the Atlantic, be productive of 
good consequences. 

To use your own emphatic words, " May that Almighty Being 
who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of 
nations, and whose providential aid can supply every human defect, 
consecrate, to the liberties and happiness of the American people, 
a government instituted by themselves, for public and private 
security, upou the basis of law and equal administration of justice, 
preserving to every individual as much civil and political freedom 
as is consistent with the safety of the nation." And may He be 
pleased to continue your life and strength, as long as you can be 
in any way useful to your country. 

Yours, &c, 

BUCHAX. 



Philadelphia, April 22, 1793. 

My Lord : The favorable wishes which your Lordship has 
expressed for the prosperity of this young and rising country, 
cannot but be gratefully received by all its citizens and every lover 
of it ; one mean to the contribution of which, and its happiness, 
is very judiciously portrayed in the following words of your letter: 
"To be little heard of in the great world of politics." 

These words, I can assure your Lordship, are an expression of 
my sentiments on this head ; and I believe it is the sincere wish 
of United America to have nothing to do with the political 
intrigues or squabbles of European nations; but, on the contrary, 
to exchange commodities, and live in peace and amity with all the 
inhabitants of the earth ; and this, I am persuaded, they will do, 
if rightfully it can be done. 



AFTER THE REVOLUTION'. 159 

To administer justice to, and receive it from every power they 
are connected with, will, I hope, be always found the most 
prominent feature in the administration of this country ; and, I 
flatter myself, that nothing short of imperious necessity can 
occasion a breach with any of them. Under such a system, if 
we are allowed to pursue it, the agriculture and mechanical arts — 
the wealth and population of these States, will increase with that 
degree of rapidity, as to baffle all calculations, and must surpass 
any idea your Lordship can hitherto have entertained on the 
occasion. 

I am, &c., 

G. WASniXGTOX. 

To THE Earl of Buchan, &c. &c. 



THE END. 



APPENDIX 



11 



APPENDIX. 



To George Washington, Esquire, one of the Adju- 
tants General of the Troops and Forces in the 
Colony of Virginia. 

I, reposing especial trust and confidence in the ability, 
conduct, and fidelity of you, the said George "Washington, 
have appointed you my express messenger; and you are 
hereby authorized and empowered to proceed hence with all 
convenient and possible dispatch, to that place on the River 
Ohio, where the French have lately erected a fort or forts, or 
where the commandant of the French forces resides, in order 
to deliver my letter and message to him, and after waiting 
not exceeding one week for an answer, you are to take your 
leave and return immediately back. 

To this communication, I have set my hand and caused 
the great seal of this dominion to be affixed, at the city of 
Williamsburg, the seat of my government, this 30th day of 
October, in the twenty-seventh year of the reign of his 
Majesty George the Second, King of Great Britain, &c. &c. 

ROBERT DINWIDDIE. 

Annoque Domiui, 1753. 



164 APPENDIX. 

B. 

Instructions for George Washington. 

Whereas, I have received information of a body of French 
forces being assembled in a hostile manner on the River Ohio, 
intending by force of arms to erect certain forts on the said 
river within this territory, and contrary to the dignity and 
peace of our sovereign and King of Great Britain : 

These are, therefore, to require and direct you, the said 
George Washington, forthwith to repair to Logstown, on the 
said River Ohio, and having there informed yourself where the 
said French forces have posted themselves, thereupon to pro- 
ceed to such place; and being there arrived, to present your 
credentials, together with my letter, to the chief commanding 
officer, and in the name of his Britannic Majesty to demand 
an answer thereto. 

On your arrival at Logstown, you are to address yourself 
to the half king, to Monacotoicha, and other the sachems 
of the Six Nations, acquainting them with your orders to 
visit and deliver my letter to the French commanding officer, 
and desiring the said chiefs to appoint you a sufficient number 
of their warriors to be your safeguard, as near the French as 
you may desire, and to wait your further directions. 

You are diligently to inquire into the number and force 
of the French on the Ohio, and the adjacent country; how 
they are likely to be assisted from Canada; and what are the 
difficulties and conveniences of that communication, and the 
time required for it. 

You are to take care to be truly informed what forts the 



APPENDIX. 165 

Frencli have erected, and where; how they are garrisoned 
and appointed, and Avhat is their distance from each other, 
and from Logstown ; and from the best intelligence you can 
procure, your are to learn what gave occasion to this expedi- 
tion of the French; how they are likely to be supported, and 
what their pretensions are. 

When the French commandant has given you the required 
and necessary dispatches, you are to desire of him a proper 
guard to protect you as far on your return as you may judge 
for your safety, against any straggling Indians or hunters 
that may be ignorant of your character, and molest you. 

"Wishing you good success in your negotiation, and a 
safe and speedy return, 

I am, kc, 

EGBERT DINWIDDIE. 

Williamsburg, October 30, 1753. 



c. 



to all to whom these presents may come or concern, 
Greeting : 

Whereas, I have appointed George Washington, Esquire, 
by commission, under the great seal, my express m'essenger 
to the commandant of the French forces on the River Ohio, 
and as he is charged with business of great importance to 
his majesty, and this Dominion : 

I do hereby command all his majesty's subjects, and par- 
ticularly require all in alliance and amity with the crown of 



166 APPENDIX. 

Great Britain, and all otliers to whom this 2^cissj)ort may come 
agreeably to tlie law of nations, to be aiding and assisting, 
as a safeguard to the said George Washington, and his 
attendants, in his present passage to and from the Eiver Ohio, 
as aforesaid. 

EGBERT DINWIDDIE. 



D. 



Fort Cumberland was constructed on the west bank of 
Wills' Creek, near its junction with the Potomac River. It 
was a breastwork of earth, of irregular form. The name 
was given to it by general Braddock in honor of the Duke 
of Cumberland, through whose influence with the court he 
was selected to take command of the troops. 

The Duke was an accomplished officer ; had served with 
great distinction in Flanders, and was an universal favorite 
with the army. When the civil commotions took place 
between England and Scotland, this distinguished nobleman 
was appointed to the command of the King's forces in Edin- 
burgh, amounting to about 14,000 men. 



APPENDIX. 167 



E. 



The ^^ Great Meadoivs'^ is a piece of flat land situated in the 
valley of a small stream which empties into the Youghiogheny 
Eiver on the west side of Laurel Hill, and about 500 yards 
south of the national road. 

The battle was fought on the 3d day of July, 1754. 
It was the intention of Col. Washington, and the decision 
of the council of war, which was held while he occupied 
with his small force an encampment on the southwest side 
of the hill, that as soon as it was ascertained that the French 
and their Indian allies had determined to march against 
them, to retire from that position to Gist's plantation on the 
northeast side of the hill, and entrench himself there, and 
make a stand against the enemy. But time did not allow 
this plan to be carried into eftect. The scouting and spying 
parties returned and reported that the enemy in combined 
force were on their march to make an attack. The men 
under the command of Colonel Washington were much 
fatigued from incessant toil for some time ; they were also 
short of provisions. He determined, therefore, to halt his 
command at the first advantageous position he could reach 
with the swivels and baggage, and the few horses he had 
with him. This spot, so memorable in history, was the 
Great Meadows. Here he hastily threw up an entrenchment, 
and at eleven o'clock in the forenoon of the same day, the 
enemy appeared, and with the usual yells of the savages, the 
enemy rushed upon the entrenched camp ; but were met 
and repelled with the loss of several hundred French and 
their Indian allies. 



168 APPENDIX. 



F. 



Colonel George Washington was appointed Commander- 
in-Chief of the American army, by the unanimous vote of 
the first Congress, which convened in Philadelphia, on the 
15th day of June, 1775, and of which he was a member. 

The following proceedings on that occasion, are copied 
from the Journal. 



Ix Congress, Thursday, June 15, 1775. 

Resolved^ That a General be appointed to command all the 
continental forces raised, or to be raised, for the defence of 
American liberty. 

That five hundred dollars per month be allowed for the 
pay and expenses of the General. 

The Congress then proceeded to the choice of a General, 
by ballot, and George Washington, Esq., was unanimously 
elected. 



Friday, June 16, 1775. 

The President informed Colonel Washington that the 
Congress had, yesterday, unanimously made choice of him 
to be General and Commander-in-Chief of the American 
forces, -and requested he would accept of that employment; 
to which Colonel Washington, standing in his place, as a 
member of the House, answered : — 



APPENDIX. 169 

Mr. President : 

Thougli I am truly sensible of tlie higli honor done 
me in this api3ointment, yet I feel great distress from a 
consciousness that my abilities and military experience may 
not be equal to the extensive and important trust ; however, 
as the Congress desire it, I will enter upon the momentous 
duty, and exert every power I possess in their service, for 
the support of the glorious cause. I beg they will accept 
my most cordial thanks for this distinguished testimony of 
their approbation. 

But lest some event should happen unfavorable to my 
reputation, I beg it may be remembered by every gentleman 
in the room, that I this day declare, with the utmost sincerit}", 
I do not think myself equal to the command I am honored 
with. 

With respect to pay, sir, I must beg leave to assure 
Congress that, as no pecuniary consideration could have 
tempted me to accept this arduous employment, at the 
expense of my domestic ease and happiness, I do not wish 
to make any profit from it. I will keep an exact account of 
my expenses. These I doubt not they will discharge, and 
that is all I desire. 



December 23, 1783. 

Mr. President : 

The events on which my resignation depended having 
at length taken place, I have now the honor of offering my 
sincere congratulations to Congress, and of presenting myself 



170 APPENDIX. 

before them to surrender into their hands the trust committed 
to me, and to claim the indulgence of retiring from the 
service of my country. 

Happy in the confirmation of our independence and 
sovereignty, and pleased with the opportunity afforded the 
United States of becoming a respectable nation, I resign 
with satisfaction the appointment I accepted with diffidence, 
a diffidence in my abilities to accomplish so arduous a task ; 
which, however, was superseded by a confidence in the 
rectitude of our cause, the support of the supreme power of 
the Union, and the patronage of heaven. 

The successful termination of the war has verified the 
most sanguine expectations ; and my gratitude for the inter- 
position of Providence, and the assistance I have received 
from my countrymen, increases with every review of the 
momentous contest. 

While I repeat my obligations to the army in general, I 
should do injustice to my own feelings not to acknowledge, 
in this place, the peculiar services and distinguished merits 
of the gentlemen who have been attached to my person 
during the war. It was impossible the choice of confidential 
officers to compose my family should have been more 
fortunate. Permit me, sir, to recommend in particular, 
those who have continued in the service to the present 
moment, as worthy of the favorable notice and patronage of 
Congress. 

I consider it an indispensable duty to close this last act 
of my official life, by commending the interests of our dearest 
country to the protection of Almighty God, and those who 
have the superintendence of them to his holy keeping. 

Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from 
the theatre of action, and bidding an affectionate farewell to 



APPENDIX. 171 

this august body, under whose orders I have so long acted, 
I here offer my commission, and take my leave of all the 
employments of public life. 



H. 



The following highly interesting letter was received from 
the Hon. Andrew Stewart, of Pennsylvania, in reply to an 
application of the compiler for information relative to an 
original MS. of General Washington, understood to be in 
his hands, indicating a route to communicate with the west 
nearly identical with that now proposed for the Connellsville 
Eail Road. The distinguished position Mr. Stewart occupied 
as a member of Congress, and his warm and zealous advocacy 
of measures of internal improvement, and his patriotic 
devotion to the best interests of his country, manifested both 
in his public and private life, ,ihe compiler regards as a 
suf&cient apology for the liberty he has taken to introduce 
his letter. 



Uniontown, Pa., March 23, 1853. 

My deae Sir : 

Your letter of the 26th inst. is just received, and I 
hasten to comply with your request to furnish you with an 
abstract from, or reference to the original manuscript docu- 
ments of General Washington, referred to in some remarks 
I recently made before the councils of Alleghany City, in 
reference to the Connellsville Road. 

You will find the whole of these documents, with many 



172 APPENDIX. 

others connected with the early history of the Potomac Com- 
pany (never before published), in the body and appendix to 
a report of 122 pages, I made from the Committee on "Eoads 
and Canals" in Congress on the 22d of May, 1826 (27 years 
ago), numbered 228, and bound in Reports of Committees, 
House of Reps. Congress U. S., 1st Session, 19th Congress, 
subject, " The Chesapeake and Ohio CanaV From these 
documents you will discover the interesting fact that as early 
as 1754, 20 years before the Revolution, General Washing- 
ton in person explored the proposed route for connecting 
the east and west by the waters of the Potomac and Yough- 
iogheny Rivers, and made a report to the Colonial Legislature 
of Virginia, describing all the obstructions to be overcome 
from Cumberland at the mouth of Wills' Creek to George- 
town, or Washington City, On the 20th of July, 1770, he 
made another report to the Governor of Maryland, compre- 
hending the wholfe route from the Atlantic to the Ohio River 
at Pittsburg, by the Connellsville route, contrasting it with 
the Susquehanna and other connections, showing its supe- 
riority as to distance and facility of construction, and its 
vast importance, "as a means," to use his own words, " of be- 
coming the channel of conveyance of the extensive and valu- 
able trade of a rising emph-eP If such were the views of 
Washington in 1770, of the importance of this route, what 
should be said of it now ? Ought not this favorite work of 
the Father of his Country to be now consummated ? He 
finally succeeded in obtaining an act of the Virginia Legisla- 
ture to incorporate a company to make this improvement. 

In 1784 he went to Annapolis, in company with Gen, 
Lafayette, and obtained a concurrent act of the Maryland 
Legislature — and in a long letter, dated, "Mount Vernon, 
3d Dec, 1784," addressed to James Madison and Mr, Jones, 



APPENDIX. 173 

then members of the Yirginia Legislature, he reiterates his 
views as to the great importance of opening the communi- 
cation, as the best, if not the only means of keeping the 
eastern and western countries together, and pressing upon 
them the necessity of a united application by Virginia and 
Maryland to the Legislature of Pennsylvania, to co-operate 
in the construction of this work, so far as it passed through 
her territory, between Cumberland and Pittsburg. He also 
suggests the arguments to be urged, and the benefits to re- 
sult to the people of Pennsylvania and the whole west for 
this work. Here is also displayed in a remarkable manner 
the wonderful sagacity of this wonderful man. 

From these documents, you will further discover that as 
soon as General "Washington was relieved from the com- 
mand of the army in 1783, and before Indian hostilities had 
ceased, he immediately returned to this favorite plan of 
uniting the East and West, and filled with the idea of its im- 
portance, he mounted his horse, and at the hazard' of his 
life actually explored in person all the present routes for 
connecting the Eastern and Western States (the New York, 
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia), and after his return 
in 1784, in a letter to the Marquis of Chastelleux, he says : 
"I have lately made a tour through the Lakes George and 
Champlain as far as Crown Point, then returning to Schenec- 
tady, I proceeded up the Mohawk Eiver to Fort Schuyler, 
crossed over the Wood Creek, which empties into the Oneida 
Lake, and affords the water communication with Ontario. I 
then traversed the country to the head of the eastern branch 
of the Susquehanna, and viewed the lake Otsego, and the 
portage between that lake and the Mohawk River at Canajo- 
harie. Prompted by these actual observations, I could not 
help taking a more contemplative and extensive view of the 



174 APPENDIX. 

vast inland navigation of the United States, and could not but 
be struck witli the immense diffusion and importance of it 
and with the goodness of that Providence which has dealt 
his favors with so profuse a hand. Would to God we may 
have wisdom enough to improve them ! I shall not rest 
contented until I have explored the western country, and 
traversed those lines (or great part of them) which have 
given bounds to a new empire." 

Among all the evidences of General "Washington's love of 
country, I consider this one of the most striking. That at 
that early day, without fee or reward, he should have hazarded 
his life amid hostile Indians, and his health, sleeping in the 
open woods in countries then totally uninhabited, is an act 
of patriotic self-devotion, which we at this day can scarcely 
believe possible. 

Among the manuscript reports of General Washington on 
this subject, I also found the following comparison of the 
several routes explored by him : — 



DISTANCE FROM DETROIT TO THE SEVERAL SEAPORTS. 
From Detroit, by the route through Fort Pitt and Fort Cumberland : — 

MILES. 

To Alexandria (or Washington City) ..... 607 

" Richmond 840 

" Philadelphia 745 

" Albany 943 

" New York 1103 

I also found among his papers a map, made out by Gen. 
Washington himself, indicating the route for what he calls a 



APPENDIX. 175 

"portage" between the waters of the Potomac and Youghiog- 
heny, on the very ground, with slight variations, on which 
the national road was afterwards constructed. For the means 
of making this road, he applied to the Virginia and Maryland 
Legislatures — the Western people being then able, he said, to 
furnish little or no aid. In making these locations and maps, 
it appears he employed surveyors and hands, whom he paid 
from his own pocket. Among them I find the names of 
Samuel Ilanaway and Dr. James Craig, the latter of whom 
acknowledges the receipt of £12 7s. and Qd., being his part 
of the expense, and who says, in one of his letters, " a gene- 
ral account of the expenses must be deferred until I have the 
pleasure of seeing you." These gentlemen made detailed 
reports of their operations to General Washington, which 
you will find in the appendix to my report, to which I refer 
you for these and other details equally interesting, of which 
you can avail yourself, if you please, in the interesting work 
you are about issuing. You can find them nowhere else. 
The original manuscript I returned to General Mason, father 
of the present Senator from Virginia. 

Yours, very respectfully, 

A. STEWART. 

Col. Jno. Pickell. 



176 APPENDIX. 



I. 



One of the most important results of tlie policy oi internal 
improvement^ was the construction of the National or Cumber- 
land Road^ and to which the rapid growth of the West, in 
population and commercial prosperity, is mainly attributable. 
The compiler well recollects, as late as 1835, when that great 
avenue leading from Cumberland to the Ohio Eiver was lite- 
rally covered with horsemen, wagons, and other vehicles, 
forming an unbroken line, wending their way over its smooth, 
but hilly and mountainous surface, to the far West, Thou- 
sands of emigrants, almost daily, were seen travelling to their 
future homes beyond the mountains, where they planted 
themselves on the broad plains, in the fertile valleys, and 
along the borders of the numerous streams of that then dis- 
tant land. By their untiring energy, toil, and perseverance, 
an empire of wealth and strength was added to the Union — 
an empire which cannot be contemplated without awakening 
the most patriotic feelings, and the deepest gratitude of our 
hearts to an overruling Providence, for the blessings vouch- 
safed to us as a nation — a united family of sister States. 



APPENDIX. 177 



K. 



Ih the Honorable the General Assemblies 

of Virginia and Maryland. 

The humble petition of the President and Directors of the 
Potomac Company, in behalf of the said Company, 
showeth : 

That in and by the acts of the said "Assemblies," for open- 
ing and extending the navigation of Potomac River, it is 
provided and enacted, " That in case the said company should 
not begin the work mentioned in the said Act, within one 
year after the company should be formed ; or if the naviga- 
tion should not be made and improved between the Great 
Falls and Fort Cumberland, in the manner hereinbefore 
mentioned, within three years after the said company should 
be formed, then the said company should not be entitled to 
any benefit, privilege, or advantage, under the said Act." 

That your petitioners conceive the intention of the Legis- 
latures in limiting the company to three years, after its for- 
mation, for making and improving the navigation between 
the Great Falls and Fort Cumberland, was to prevent any 
unnecessary delay in executing the work, and on the pre- 
sumption that the time allowed was fully sufficient to effect 
it in the common and usual course of the seasons. 

That the said company have entered on the work, within 

the time limited, and prosecuted the same, at great expense, 

with unremitted assiduity, with such prospect of success, that 

they hope and expect to complete the whole navigation within 

the ten years allowed ; but that the latter part of the summer, 
12 



:^- 



178 APPENDIX. 

and the fall of 1785, were so unfavorable, that the hands 
employed in the bed of the river, above the Oreat Falls, were 
often drove from their work by the rises of the water, and 
frequently kept out for several days together, so that the work 
could not proceed as was wished and expected. And the 
last summer hath proved so very rainy, that the water has 
constantly kept up too high to permit any work to be done 
in the bed of the river ; though the company retained a 
considerable number of men in their service through the 
whole of the last winter, with the view of being prepared to 
enter on the work with great force, about the 20th of June, 
the time that the water is commonly low enough for such 
purpose ; and thus, by extraordinary exertion, to retrieve 
the unavoidable loss of time in the preceding year. 

Your petitioners, therefore, on behalf of the said company, 
pray that acts of the said Assemblies may be passed whereby 
the said company may be indulged with time till the seven- 
teenth day of November, 1790, or such other time as to your 
Honors shall seem reasonable for making and improving the 
navigation between the Great Falls and Fort Cumberland. 

And your petitioners, &c. 

In behalf of the Board, 

Signed, G. WASHINGTON, 

President. 














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